WHAT  MAKES 


A  NATION  GREAT 


JX 1 952 

•I_9c3 


FREDERICK  LYNCH 


i>'VIS10Q 


Section 


What  Makes  a  Nation  Great 


By 

Frederick  Lynch 

Secretary  Church  Peace  Union 

(Founded  by  Andrew  Carnegie) 

The  Last  W^ar.  A  Study  of  Things  Present 
and  Things  to  Come.  i2mo,  cloth  .  .  .  net  75c. 

Dr.  Lynch  places  responsibility  for  the  great 
European  War  where  he  considers  it  rightfully  be¬ 
longs,  reviews  the  moral  and  economic  effects  and 
discusses  the  ultimate  issue  he  believes  will  follow. 
Dr.  Lynch  claims  for  the  churches  a  large  share  in 
this  consummation. 

What  Makes  a  Nation  Great?  i2mo, 

cloth . net  75c. 

“  This  is  a  voice  that  ought  to  be  heard.  Dr. 
Lynch  points  out  what  elements  enter  into  the  great¬ 
ness  of  a  nation  and  gives  some  indications  that  by 
these  standards  the  United  States  is  a  great  nation. 
If  pastors  read  this  book  they  will  be  very  sure  to 
preach  it.” — The  Continent . 

The  Peace  Problem.  The  Task  of  the 
Twentieth  Century.  Introduction  by  Andrew  Car¬ 
negie.  Cloth . .  net  75c. 

Andrew  Carnegie  commends  this  book  in  no 
stinted  terms.  “  I  have  read  this  book  from  be¬ 
ginning  to  end  with  interest  and  profit.  I  hope 
large  editions  will  be  circulated  by  our  peace  or¬ 
ganizations  among  those  we  can  interest  in  the 
noblest  of  all  causes.” 

The  New  Opportunities  of  the  Min¬ 
istry.  With  Introduction  by  Hugh  Black,  M.A., 
D.D.  i2mo,  cloth . net  75c. 

Professor  Hugh  Black,  of  Union  Theological  Sem¬ 
inary,  says  :  “  Mr.  Lynch  has  amply  proved  his 
case,  which  is  to  present  the  opportunities  afforded 
by  the  modern  ministry.  The  broad  and  forceful 
appeal  of  this  book  will  surely  not  miss  its  mark.” 


By 

FREDERICK  LYNCH ,  D.D. 

Secretary  Federal  Council  Commission  on  Peace 
and  Arbitration  and  Author  of  “The 
Peace  Problem  f  “The  New  Oppor¬ 
tunities  of  the  Ministry etc . 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1914,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  125  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:  too  Princes  Street 


Dedicated  to  my  esteemed  friend 

Rdwin  D.  Mead 

who ,  for  many  years,  has  unceasingly  and 
untiringly  urged  upon  his  country  those 
ideals  which  make  a  nation  truly  great 


CONTENTS 


I. 

That  Nation  Is  Greatest  Which  Does 
Most  For  Its  People 

9 

II. 

That  Nation  Is  Greatest  Which  Gives 
the  World  Greatest  Men 

16 

III. 

That  Nation  Is  Greatest  Which 
Teaches  the  World  Some  Great 
Truth 

23 

IV. 

That  Nation  Is  Greatest  Which  Dares 
Trust  In  Justice  Rather  Than  In 
Force  . 

32 

V. 

That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest  Which 
First  Practises  the  New  Patriotism 

41 

VI. 

That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest  Which 
Leads  the  Other  Nations  Into  the 
New  Order  . 

ON 

VII. 

That  Nation  Is  Greatest  Which  Prac¬ 
tises  Hospitality  .... 

69 

VIII. 

That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest  In  This 
Twentieth  Century  Which  First 
Learns  Stewardship . 

79 

IX. 

That  Nation  Is  Greatest  Which  First 
Practises  Real  Democracy 

92 

X. 

Some  Indications  That  the  United 
States  Is  a  Great  Nation  .  • 

100 

7 


I 


THAT  NATION  IS  GREATEST  WHICH  DOES) 
MOST  FOR  ITS  PEOPLE 

SOME  time  ago  we  listened  to  a  dis¬ 
tinguished  American  lecturing  to  an 
audience  of  young  men  on  the  great¬ 
ness  of  the  United  States.  In  the  course  of 
his  address  he  spoke  somewhat  as  follows : 
We  are  the  greatest  nation  in  the  world. 
We  have  more  miles  of  railroad  than  any 
other  country.  We  build  the  longest  bridges 
and  the  highest  houses.  We  raise  more 
wheat  than  any  land,  and  our  mines  of  coal 
and  ore  are  inexhaustible.  We  carry  on  the 
biggest  business  and  produce  the  richest 
men.  We  eat  more  beef  than  any  other 
people.  We  build  the  biggest  battle-ships 
and  man  them  with  the  best  men.  We  are 
digging  the  biggest  canal  in  the  world  and 
soon  we  shall  have  ten  of  the  biggest  cities 
in  existence ! 

The  writer  came  away  from  that  lecture 
revolving  many  things  in  his  mind,  and 
chiefly  this  question  :  What  makes  a  nation 
great  ?  Is  it  any  of  these  things  ?  Have  not 

9 


lo  That  Nation  is  Greatest 

the  greatest  nations  of  the  world — those 
which  all  men  acknowledge  greatest — pos¬ 
sessed  few  or  none  of  these  things  ?  Could 
not  a  nation  to-day  be  great  without  any  of 
these  things  ?  Is  not  the  United  States  great 
just  to  the  degree  that  she  possesses  certain 
qualities  which  were  not  mentioned  in  this 
category  ?  Would  she  be  great  if  she  had 
all  of  these  things  and  had  no  character,  no 
fine  idealism,  no  sense  of  honour,  no  justice 
within  her  borders,  no  spirit  of  mission,  no 
great  men,  no  lofty  destiny  in  view  ?  What  are 
the  things  that  will  make  all  the  world  call  her 
admirable,  wonderful,  inimitable?  Is  it  not 
soul  rather  than  things  that  makes  nations  as 
well  as  men  great?  This  little  book  is  the 
writer’s  answer  to  these  questions. 

What  makes  a  nation  great?  No  one 
would  think  for  a  moment  of  calling  Russia 
a  great  nation.  She  has  illimitable  stretches 
of  territory.  No  one  knows  what  wealth  of 
minerals  lies  beneath  those  vast  areas  of 
Siberian  ice.  She  has  interminable  railroads. 
She  has  wide  fields  of  grain.  She  has  a  huge 
army  and  is  constantly  increasing  it.  Many 
of  her  nobles  are  very  rich.  She  has  even 
given  the  world  some  remarkable  literature 
and  some  unique  music.  But  with  all  these 
things,  no  one  names  her  among  the  great 


Which  Does  Most  for  Its  People  1 1 

nations.  Why?  Because  she  does  so  little 
for  her  people.  She  gives  but  scanty  educa¬ 
tion  to  her  great  masses.  She  bears  not 
their  continual  poverty  and  suffering  upon 
her  heart.  She  represses  them  with  her  iron 
rule  and  Cossack  army.  She  persecutes 
whole  cities  of  her  adopted  sons.  She  with¬ 
holds  that  freedom  of  thought  and  action 
which  would  bring  them  both  joy  in  life  and 
splendid  manhood.  She  imprisons  and 
exiles  with  no  trial  and  no  mercy.  She 
shows  no  love  of  a  father  for  his  children. 
The  government  is  an  oppressor,  not  a  pro¬ 
tector. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  little  nation 
in  the  heart  of  Europe  which  would  be  lost 
should  one  put  it  in  the  centre  of  Russia. 
She  has  little  wealth  of  coal  and  ore.  She 
has  no  army  to  speak  of,  and  no  navy.  She 
has  no  great  prairies  of  waving  grain, 
although  there  are  some  fields  of  blue  and 
golden  flowers.  Her  chief  possessions  are 
rock  and  ice.  Her  only  high  buildings  are 
high  because  built  on  tops  of  mountains. 
And  yet  everybody  calls  Switzerland  a  re¬ 
markable  nation.  Why  ?  Because  she  does 
so  much  for  her  people.  Every  child  is  given 
as  fine  an  education  by  the  state  as  he  wants, 
or,  at  least,  needs.  Children  have  rights 


12 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


assured  them,  and  are  never  dependent  upon 
the  caprice  of  charity.  The  government  is 
continually  devising  new  methods  of  giving 
the  child  both  a  happy  childhood  and  one 
which  prepares  him  for  manhood.  One  hears 
little  of  child-labour  and  sees  no  children 
begging.  The  marriage  and  divorce  laws 
are  framed  with  the  happiness  and  welfare  of 
the  children  in  view.  This  care  also  extends 
to  the  whole  people.  Taxation  is  assessed  to 
take  the  burden  off  the  man  using  his  land 
productively  and  off  the  poor.  Every  poor 
mother  is  entitled  to  free  care  in  the  best  of 
maternity  hospitals— -and  the  hospital  service 
is  splendid.  The  state  gives  free  burial  to 
all.  Wood  is  free  in  many  cantons  and  the 
government  does  all  it  can  for  its  people.1 

The  United  States  will  be  a  great  nation 
just  in  the  proportion  that  she  cares  for  her 
people.  If  she  sees  that  every  child  within 
her  border  has  the  education  he  needs  to 
grapple  with  the  forces  of  nature,  earn  a  liv¬ 
ing  wage,  play  his  part  as  a  useful  citizen, 
enjoy  the  leisure  hours  of  day  and  night, 
rear  a  family  decently  when  manhood  comes, 
assume  his  share  of  government  intelli¬ 
gently,  and  have  such  character  as  education 

1  See  “  Lessons  from  Switzerland,”  by  Helen  Haliburton  in 
Public  Opinion  for  January,  1913. 


Which  Does  Most  for  Its  People  13 

can  give,  then  she  will  be  great,  though  all 
her  skyscrapers  were  demolished.  If  she 
sees  that  her  children  have  the  formative 
years  of  childhood  for  free  and  happy  play, 
as  God  intended  they  should  have,  and  pro¬ 
hibits  any  labour  that  robs  them  of  green 
fields  and  sunlight,  and  forbids  their  employ¬ 
ment  in  deep  mines,  and  stifling  mills,  and 
overheated  factories  from  dark  of  morning 
till  dark  of  night,  under  conditions  that 
dwarf  both  soul  and  body,  then  she  will  be 
great,  regardless  of  her  railroads. 

If  the  nation  becomes  the  great  father  of 
its  people  and  sees  that  every  man  has  eco¬ 
nomic  justice,  that  every  man  who  would 
work  has  opportunity  to  do  so,  that  every 
man  has  a  living  wage,  and  rest  and  leisure 
to  cultivate  his  soul,  and  can  institute  that  co¬ 
operation  between  employer  and  employee 
that  shall  do  away  with  injustice  by  the  one 
and  shirking  of  labour  by  the  other,  then  it 
will  be  truly  great.  If  she  can  take  these 
vast  numbers  of  men  who  come  to  us  from 
lands  where  government  means  oppression, 
and  work  means  exploitation  and  life  means 
meagreness  and  drudgery,  and  be  to  them 
their  protector  from  the  spoiler  and  politician, 
making  them  learn  to  love  her  as  the  great 
father  of  all  within  her  borders,  then  shall 


14  That  Nation  is  Greatest 

she  be  great,  indeed— greatest  of  all  nations. 
If  she  can  provide  old-age  pensions  for  those 
who,  in  the  stress  of  life,  can  save  but  little, 
and  provide  insurance  against  accident  and 
death,  and  take  money  the  great  empires  are 
piling  up  in  armaments,  which  in  turn  be¬ 
come  as  burdensome  as  the  first  taxation, 
and  put  this  money  into  abolishing  disease 
and  educating  her  people  in  health,  and  in¬ 
sists  on  decent  homes  for  her  citizens,  then 
her  children  will  love  her,  and  other  nations 
will  call  her  glorious.  If  she  can  provide 
technical  schools,  and  all  sorts  of  institutes, 
night  schools  and  colleges,  libraries,  art 
galleries,  museums,  parks,  music,  and  play¬ 
grounds  for  the  little  children,  all  this  will 
add  to  her  greatness. 

No.  It  is  not  mines,  railroads,  bridges, 
beef-eating,  navies,  skyscrapers,  telephones 
that  make  a  nation  great,  but  the  devotion 
she  bestows  upon  her  children.  Or,  to  put  it 
in  the  words  of  Dr.  John  Clifford,  that  nation 
is  great  which  can  answer  this  question  in 
the  affirmative  :  “  Is  your  social  order  just  ? 
What  sort  of  character  are  you  building  ? 
Are  you  creating  a  happy,  healthy  society  ? 
Are  your  ideals  justice,  freedom,  equality  of 
opportunity,  mutual  helpfulness  and  univer¬ 
sal  happiness  ?  Is  your  nation  going  as  a 


Which  Does  Most  for  Its  People  15 

Good  Shepherd  before  the  sheep,  restoring 
those  who  are  out  of  the  way,  and  carrying 
in  its  capacious  bosom  the  lambs  of  the 
flock?  Are  you  daring  to  give  full  sover¬ 
eignty  to  love  and  good-will,  sympathy  to 
the  weak  and  erring,  help  to  the  handicapped 
and  restoration  to  the  lost?  Do  you  grow 
pluck  and  fortitude,  energy  of  thought,  alert¬ 
ness  of  mind,  strength  of  will,  magnanimity 
of  spirit,  patience  under  rebuffs,  refusal  to 
surrender  to  defeat  in  a  good  cause,  and  per¬ 
sistence  against  overwhelming  odds  ?  Are 
you  bold  enough  to  be  a  Christian  State? 

That  is  the  question.  Not,  is  your  trade 
prosperous  beyond  precedent,  or  your  army 
and  navy  larger  than  ever ;  but  what  sort  of 
character  are  you  developing  as  a  people  ? 


II 


THAT  NATION  IS  GREATEST  WHICH  GIVES 
THE  WORLD  GREATEST  MEN 

WHAT  makes  a  nation  great?  No 
one  ever  thinks  of  China  as  a 
great  nation.  We  may  some  day, 
for  the  huge,  sleeping  mass  is  stirring,  and 
new  impulses  are  at  work  within  her  breast, 
and  a  vision  is  dawning  in  her  eyes.  But  no 
teacher  would  point  out  China  to  his  boys 
and  say :  “  Here  is  one  of  the  leading  na¬ 
tions  of  the  earth ;  here  is  the  ideal  of  prog¬ 
ress  ;  here  is  a  great  civilization.”  And  why  ? 
China  has  unending  miles  of  fertile  plains, 
on  which  grow  vast  fields  of  rice.  Her  nat¬ 
ural  resources  will  be  fabulous  when  our 
Western  industry  opens  the  gates  of  her 
locked  mines.  Railroads  will  soon  run  in 
every  direction.  And  yet  even  though  her 
material  prosperity  should  suddenly  multiply 
to  be  commensurate  with  her  vastness,  she 
would  not  be  great.  She  has  never  given  the 
world  great  men.  The  average  man  knows 
the  name  of  only  one  great  Chinaman — Con¬ 
fucius.  Neither  has  she  given  the  world  a 

16 


Which  Gives  the  World  Greatest  Men  17 

type  of  humanity  so  great  that  all  nations 
point  to  it  and  say  :  “  This  is  humanity  worth 
striving  for  !  ” 

On  the  other  hand  there  is  a  little  country 
lying  in  the  northern  seas  which  has  no 
fabulous  wealth  in  mines  or  quarries  ;  which 
is  not  big  enough  to  have  any  long  railroads  ; 
which  grows  more  heather  on  its  barren 
mountains  than  grain  ;  which  has  no  tower¬ 
ing  buildings  and  only  one  or  two  great 
bridges  ;  which  thinks  more  of  its  universities 
than  it  does  of  its  insurance  towers  ;  and  yet 
it  is  a  country  which  is  synonymous  with 
greatness  wherever  its  name  is  mentioned. 
Of  course  Scotland  is  the  country  to  which  I 
refer.  And  why  is  Scotland  everywhere  and 
always  great  ?  Because  she  has  given  to  the 
world  great  men .  She  has  literally  blessed 
the  world  with  them.  Every  generation  she 
has  produced  several,  and  every  spot  on 
earth  knows  them  ;  even  Africa,  whose  por¬ 
tals  were  flung  open  by  her  great  son,  Living¬ 
stone.  How  the  names  roll  off  one’s  pen, — 
Wallace,  Bruce,  Knox,  Montrose,  of  the 
early  days,  through  a  long  list  down  to 
Burns,  Scott,  Carlyle,  Livingstone,  Chalmers, 
Guthrie,  MacLeod,  Hume,  Blakie,  Caird, 
Robertson  Smith,  Stevenson,  Barrie,  Ian 
Maclaren,  Balfour,  Bryce,  Campbell-Banner- 


18  That  Nation  is  Greatest 

man,  John  S.  Kennedy,  Andrew  Carnegie — 
one  could  continue  the  list  indefinitely,  from 
every  rank,  calling  and  vocation.  A  proces¬ 
sion  of  great  men  carrying  the  genius  of 
Scotland  into  the  life  of  every  nation.  But 
even  more  than  this,  Scotland  has  given  to 
the  world  a  great  race  of  men.  The  Scotch 
manhood  is  recognized  everywhere  as  a  high 
type.  It  is  known  for  its  high  average  in¬ 
telligence,  its  mental  grasp,  its  independent 
thinking,  its  masterfulness  of  situations,  its 
capacity  for  culture,  its  sturdiness,  its  philo¬ 
sophical  insight,  its  religious  intensity. 
Scotland  is  great  because  she  has  produced 
great  manhood ,  and  who  worries  much 
whether  she  has  any  Woolworth  Buildings 
or  not? 

The  United  States  will  be  a  great  nation  in 
the  eyes  of  the  world  just  in  proportion  as  she 
continues  to  give  the  world  great  men.  If 
she  can  go  on  producing  such  men  as  Adams, 
Franklin,  Washington,  Jefferson,  Webster, 
Parker,  Channing,  Bushnell,  Phillips,  Lin¬ 
coln,  Whittier,  Emerson,  Beecher,  Lowell, — 
not  to  mention  many  others  and  omitting 
living  men — she  will  surely  be  counted  a 
great  nation.  If  she  fail  here,  none  of  these 
other  things  will  make  her  noted  among 
men.  One  needs  only  to  bring  to  mind 


Which  Gives  the  World  Greatest  Men  19 

those  nations  of  the  past,  which  still  live  in 
the  mind  of  to-day,  to  see  that  they  are 
remembered  primarily  for  their  prophets, 
poets,  statesmen  and  great  leaders,  not  for 
their  resource,  not  primarily  for  their  achieve¬ 
ment  in  war  or  commerce.  It  is  here  that 
some  are  questioning  the  real  greatness  of 
our  country.  It  was  only  yesterday  that  a 
London  paper  was  giving  reasons  why  the 
United  States  was  producing  no  great  gen¬ 
iuses.  If  we  are  not,  it  is  because  we  are  too 
engrossed  in  producing  things.  But  things 
will  not  make  us  great,  if  with  them  and 
commanding  them  there  are  not  men.  The 
writer  is  not  so  sure  that  we  are  not  on  the 
way  to  give  the  world  more  great,  good  men. 
No  one  knows  what  lies  dormant  in  the  minds 
of  these  million  boys,  with  blood  of  many 
nations  coursing  through  their  veins.  It  is 
for  the  nation  to  foster  these  minds  to  great¬ 
ness  if  she  would  shine  before  the  world. 

But  there  is  something  better  than  giving 
the  world  great  men,  and  that  is  the  produc¬ 
ing  of  a  lofty  type  of  manhood.  Perhaps  in 
the  age  of  full  democracy,  on  whose  threshold 
we  now  are  standing,  the  aim  of  civilization 
will  not  be  so  much  the  giving  birth  to  a  few 
wonderful,  outstanding,  giant-like  heroes  as 
the  producing  of  a  high,  fearless,  intelligent 


20 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


average  humanity.  The  world  will  always 
need  leaders,  but  perhaps  the  genius  of 
democracy  is  to  lift  the  race  up  on  to  the 
high  table-lands,  more  than  to  generate  men 
who  stand  like  mountains  rising  out  of  the 
low  valleys.  Perhaps  we  shall  develop  a 
nation  of  men  who  can  think  and  reason  and 
act  and  see  for  themselves  the  visions  they 
will  fulfill.  However  that  may  be,  that  nation 
will  be  greatest  in  the  twentieth  century 
which  produces  within  its  borders  a  free  and 
ideal  humanity.  What  shall  make  our  own 
nation  great  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  nations  ? 
Not  her  wealth, — not  her  bridges  and  tower¬ 
ing  structures,  but  the  manhood  of  her 
people. 

If  the  United  States  can  produce  the  high¬ 
est  type  of  manhood  the  world  has  yet  seen — 
a  manhood  that  fears  nothing  except  base¬ 
ness,  dares  face  great  issues  and  solve  them, 
can  think  for  itself,  has  a  high  sense  of  hon¬ 
our,  is  vigorous  in  its  intellect  and  clean  in  its 
heart,  has  strength  of  limb  and  beauty  of 
soul,  creates  art  and  enjoys  what  it  has 
created,  practices  justice  towards  all  men  and 
nations,  puts  the  world  of  the  spirit  above  the 
lust  of  material  things,  then  all  the  world  will 
point  to  America  and  say :  “  There  is  a 

manhood  such  as  the  world  has  not  yet  seen 


Which  Gives  the  World  Greatest  Men  21 

— great,  wonderful,  star-crowned,  admirable  ! 
Let  us  pattern  after  it  and  point  our  children 
to  it.” 

Sometimes  one  cannot  help  feeling  that 
America  has  just  this  opportunity  of  creating 
the  highest  type  of  manhood  the  world  has 
ever  seen.  For  no  other  nation  has  had  the 
diversity  of  rare  materials,  such  a  solar  spec¬ 
trum  of  varying  greatnesses,  as  has  she,  to 
.  combine  into  one  pellucid  manhood.  For  has 
not  every  nation  of  the  world  sent  us  of  its  best, 
and  will  not  the  American  people  that  is  to 
be,  be  a  people  in  whom  all  these  high  quali¬ 
ties  are  blended  ?  Sometimes  one  sees  this 
manhood  rising  in  the  future— a  manhood  to 
which  the  varying  and  diversified  gifts  and 
highest  qualities  and  differing  temperaments 
and  personalities  of  Scotch,  Irish,  English,  Ger¬ 
man,  French,  Scandinavian,  Austrian,  Italian 
— and  who  knows  but  Jewish — have  contrib¬ 
uted  something,  and  which  will  stand  as  the 
sort  of  consummation  of  all  the  manhoods  of 
the  ages,  may  be,  perhaps,  the  manhood 
towards  which  creation  has  for  ages  been 
slowly  moving,  the  crown  of  evolution,  the 
final  sons  of  God. 

It  is  no  dream,  for  the  blending  is  already 
going  on  about  us.  The  races  are  rapidly 
intermarrying  in  our  great  cities.  Already 


22 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


there  are  children  playing  in  our  streets  with 
blood  of  many  countries  in  their  veins.  Let 
our  nation  bend  all  her  energies  through 
school,  college,  church,  institutes,  books, 
every  resource,  to  fashion  this  composite 
manhood  into  the  highest,  and  who  knows 
but  our  nation  may  be  greatest  because  she 
has  produced  greatest  manhood ! 


Ill 


THAT  NATION  IS  GREATEST  WHICH 
TEACHES  THE  WORLD  SOME 
GREAT  TRUTH 

WHAT  makes  a  nation  great?  No 
one  would  ever  think  of  calling 
Turkey  a  great  nation.  There  are 
many  reasons  why.  But  supposing  she  had 
many  miles  of  railroads,  great  wealth  of  min¬ 
erals,  and  acres  of  waving  grain  ;  in  fact,  any 
of  the  things  the  lecturer  said  make  the 
United  States  great, — even  then  we  could  not 
call  Turkey  a  great  nation.  Turkey  has 
never  given  the  world  any  of  those  great 
truths  that  lie  at  the  basis  of  all  civilization. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  two  little 
countries  not  far  from  Turkey,  so  small  they 
are  lost  on  any  map  of  the  world,  but  which 
are,  perhaps,  the  two  greatest  nations  the 
world  has  ever  known.  One  of  them  con¬ 
sists  mostly  of  sea-washed  mountains  and 
islands.  She  has  no  railroads,  no  bridges, 
hardly  any  material  wealth.  Y et  Greece  stands 
forever  wonderful — crowned  with  glory  I 

23 


24  That  Nation  is  Greatest 

For  Greece  gave  the  world  one  of  those 
truths  which  underlies  the  whole  fabric  of 
civilization  and  has  been  inwrought  into  all 
the  world’s  thinking,  so  that  there  is  probably 
not  a  man  who  will  read  these  words  whose 
philosophy  of  life  has  not  been  shaped  to  some 
extent  by  the  truth  which  that  little,  craggy 
country  gave  to  the  world  2,500  years  ago. 
For  Greece  taught  the  world  forever  that  the 
quest  of  the  ideal  is  the  one  quest  worthy  of 
human  beings  ;  that  the  human  soul  is  greater 
than  whole  universes  of  dead  matter  ;  that 
those  ideas  which  underlie  all  that  is  best  and 
highest  in  our  life  and  thinking  are  invariable 
and  universal  and  give  light  to  all  pure 
hearts  ;  that  the  universe  finds  its  ultimate 
meaning  in  free  human  spirits  ;  that  beauty  is 
truth,  and  truth  is  always  the  most  beautiful 
thing. 

This  idealism  that  came  to  us  from  Greece 
lies  underneath  all  lofty  thinking, — all  great 
artistic  achievement, — and  has  infused  itself 
into  all  civilization  which  loves  the  good,  the 
true,  the  beautiful,  more  than  things . 

But  there  is  another  country  whose  glory 
outshines  even  that  of  Greece.  It  has  no 
railroads,  no  mines,  no  rich  soil,  no  buildings, 
no  wealth  of  any  kind,  not  even  any  art,  yet 
every  child  who  ever  lived  in  Christendom 


Which  Teaches  the  World  Some  Truth  25 

could  tell  us  all  about  it,  and  has  probably 
known  its  history  better  than  that  of  his  own 
land.  What  country,  with  all  the  treasure  in 
things  that  some  have  had,  with  all  the  great¬ 
ness  of  arms  and  conquest  in  wars  that  some 
have  achieved,  has  influenced  the  world  or 
been  called  great  in  comparison  with  the 
little  strip  of  barren  soil  we  call  Palestine  ? 

And  why  is  Palestine  so  great?  Simply 
because  she  gave,  along  with  her  great  men 
and  women,  a  great  foundation  truth  on 
which  our  Christian  civilization  has  been 
reared.  She  taught  the  world  that  back  of 
and  running  through  all  creation  was  the 
Eternal  Goodness,  and  that  His  right  name 
was  Father  ;  that  men  were  the  offspring  of 
this  Father,  made  in  His  image,  therefore 
Sons  of  God  ;  that  all  mankind  was  compre¬ 
hended  in  the  infinite  love  and  purposes  of 
God  ;  that  the  world  was  not  at  the  mercy  of 
fitful  fates  and  blind  matter,  but  that  it  moved 
onward  and  upward  to  some  divine  consum¬ 
mation  under  the  impulse  and  guidance  of 
the  indwelling  spirit ;  that  all  creation  groan- 
eth  and  travaileth  to  bring  forth  perfect  man 
and  the  final  Kingdom  of  service,  peace,  and 
good-will  among  men  ;  that  the  soul  was  the 
final  wealth  of  great  worth ;  that  all  the  re¬ 
sources  of  heaven  and  earth  existed  to  free 


26  That  Nation  is  Greatest 

this  soul  and  exalt  it ;  and  that  it  was  im¬ 
mortal. 

This  message  has  made  the  very  mental 
and  spiritual  atmosphere  in  which  we  live. 
It  has  determined  the  lives  of  countless  mil¬ 
lions,  and  shaped  their  whole  conduct  and 
outlook  upon  life.  On  it  our  institutions 
have  been  based  and  out  of  it  has  sprung 
most  of  our  literature.  It  has  become  a  part 
of  our  language  and  it  is  the  one  word  which 
to-day  will  be  spoken  where  any  man  is  talk¬ 
ing  of  the  common  life.  This  is  what  it  is  to 
be  a  great  nation — to  give  the  world  such 
truth  as  Greece  and  Palestine  have  given  it. 
And  is  not  what  greatness  even  Germany 
and  England  have  to-day  really  based  on 
the  men  they  have  reared  and  the  truth  their 
prophets,  philosophers,  scientists  and  poets 
have  given  the  nations  ?  That  nation  is 
greatest  which  gives  the  world  a  truth  that 
makes  its  very  social  structure  new. 

The  United  States  will  be  the  greatest  na¬ 
tion  in  the  world,  if,  like  Greece  and  Pales¬ 
tine  in  ancient  days,  she  can  in  these  modern 
days  give  the  world  another  truth  that  shall 
be  woven  into  the  very  warp  and  woof  of  its 
destiny.  And  some  of  us  dare  venture  to 
believe  that  God  has  called  her  to  speak 
some  such  great  word,  just  as  He  called 


Which  Teaches  the  World  Some  Truth  27 

Greece  to  teach  the  ideal  or  Palestine  to 
teach  the  righteous  God  seeking  to  make 
His  children  righteous,  or  Rome  to  teach 
order  and  organization  under  law.  And  is 
not  this  great  truth  just  the  one  truth  for 
which  all  the  world  is  even  now  asking,  pray¬ 
ing  for  and  seeking, — the  truth  of  the  brother¬ 
hood  of  man  ?  And  not  the  mere  saying  of 

it,  and  not  the  truth  as  a  beautiful,  desirable 

'  •*! 

and  distant  aspiration,  and  not  as  an  unat¬ 
tainable  ideal  to  be  always  approximated, 
but  as  a  possibility — a  reality — an  achieve¬ 
ment,  an  object  lesson  to  all  other  nations. 

The  very  situation  is  God’s  voice  calling 
America  to  this  high  destiny.  Here  are 
Germans,  British,  French,  Austrians,  Italians, 
Slavs,  Russians  by  the  millions.  In  the  old 
countries  they  have  never  been  able  to  live 
in  peace.  They  have  cherished  ancient 
grudges,  old  injustices  have  rankled  in  their 
hearts.  Each  nation,  even  to-day,  watches 
the  other  with  alert  and  suspicious  eyes. 
One  familiar  with  the  literature  of  Europe 
finds  it  full  of  a  cynicism  which  doubts  if 
brotherhood  was  not  the  ineffective  and  im¬ 
possible  dream  of  a  Jesus  who  knew  little  of 
men  or  nations.  (The  Socialist  literature  is 
a  striking  exception  to  this  statement.) 

Perhaps  no  nation  in  Europe  could  do  this 


28 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


task  even  had  she  faith  in  it,  for  the  old  world 
peoples  have  not  the  divine  conditions.  It 
looks  as  if  Providence  had  predestined 
America  as  the  nation  to  put  this  crowning 
touch  upon  the  evolution  of  human  society. 
Our  people  have  been  brought  here,  with 
all  their  hatreds,  animosities,  rankling  injus¬ 
tices,  opposing  points  of  view,  and  ingrained 
class  distinctions.  And  lo  1  German  and 
French  children  play  together  in  the  same 
street  and  instead  of  fighting  or  hating,  marry 
each  other  when  they  grow  up.  But  if  they 
need  not  fight  one  another  here,  will  not  the 
question  soon  be  asked  in  Europe :  “  Why 
need  we  fight  each  other  here  ?  ” 

This  nation  has  the  one  opportunity  of  all 
history  to  teach  the  world  how  men  of  all 
nationalities  can  work  together,  play  to¬ 
gether,  live  together,  govern  themselves 
together,  cooperate  together,  and  serve 
each  other  regardless  of  any  racial  or 
national  distinctions.  The  world  does  not 
believe  this.  It  will  have  to  believe  it  if  the 
United  States  is  true  to  its  divine  calling  and 
one  great  opportunity.  Even  now,  one  who 
knows  Europe  well  finds  echoes  of  it  every¬ 
where.  The  author  of  these  lines  himself 
heard  a  distinguished  German  say :  “  How  is 
it  that  in  America  Germans  and  English  can 


Which  Teaches  the  World  Some  Truth  29 

dwell  together  as  friends  and  brothers,  while 
here  we  must  be  forever  enemies?”  And 
the  United  States  is  going  to  show  Germany 
and  England  and  the  other  nations  that  not 
only  can  these  men  dwell  side  by  side  as 
brothers,  but  she  is  going  to  answer  this 
question:  “How?  Why?”  It  is  simply 
that  we  are  learning  here  that  the  things  we 
all  hold  in  common  are  infinitely  more  im¬ 
portant  than  the  things  wherein  we  differ. 
They  are  more  a  part  of  our  real  selves,  com¬ 
pose  our  being,  make  us  men ,  while  nation¬ 
ality,  race,  language,  even  colour,  are  only 
clothes  covering  a  soul  which  everywhere  is 
one  and  the  same.  Love,  happiness,  health, 
kindliness  of  soul,  are  the  same  in  every 
heart  and  nation,  and  are  greater  than  the 
things  that  divide  us.  Here  we  emphasize 
these  and  find  that  we  who  once  thought 
ourselves  different  are  really  one. 

The  one  great  task  of  our  nation  is  to 
further  this  brotherhood  in  every  way.  Spon¬ 
taneously,  out  of  the  very  conditions  it  is 
arising,  but  the  nation  must  conceive  it  as  its 
destiny  to  further  it  by  every  means.  It  should 
break  down  every  barrier  that  keeps  men 
apart ;  should  stamp  out  every  injustice  that 
breeds  class  animosities ;  should  purge  itself 
of  every  corruption  that  hinders  full  democ- 


30  That  Nation  is  Greatest 

racy,  and  should  teach  every  man  who  enters 
its  golden  gates  that  here  all  races  are  one. 
And  let  us  remember  that  this  is  more  a 
people’s  task  than  a  government’s.  The 
people,  not  the  government,  are  the  nation. 
Let  us  who  come  here,  whether  we  are 
German,  French,  Italian,  Russian,  Scandi¬ 
navian,  British,  Jew  or  Slav,  resolve  to  put 
all  racial  and  national  differences  behind  us 
forever. 

Let  us,  while  we  love  the  land  that  gave  us 
birth,  as  we  love  our  mother,  remember  that 
in  coming  to  America,  we  have  married  her, 
as  it  were,  and  started  a  new  home,  and  our 
chief  obligation  is  there.  Let  us  resolve  to 
be  Americans  first,  and  all  other  things 
second.  Thus,  this  brotherhood  will  come. 
The  world  eagerly  waits  for  it.  Surely 
America  has  been  called  to  teach  it  to  the 
nations.  If  she  can,  she  will  be  greatest 
among  peoples.  How  splendidly  Israel 
Zangwill  has  put  this  great  truth  in  his 
recent  drama  :  “  The  Melting  Pot.” 

“  Not  understand  that  America  is  God’s 
Crucible,  the  great  melting  pot  where  all  the 
races  of  Europe  are  melting  and  reforming ! 
Here  you  stand,  good  folk,  think  I,  when  J 
see  them  at  Ellis  Island,  here  you  stand  in 
your  fifty  groupss  with  your  fifty  languages 


Which  Teaches  the  World  Some  Truth  31 

and  histories  and  your  fifty  blood  hatreds 
and  rivalries.  But  you  won’t  be  long  like 
that,  brothers,  for  these  are  the  fires  of  God 
you’ve  come  to — these  are  the  fires  of  God. 
A  fig  for  your  feuds  and  vendettas  I  Germans 
and  Frenchmen,  Irishmen  and  Englishmen, 
Jews  and  Russians — into  the  Crucible  with 
you  all !  God  is  making  the  American.” 


IV 

THAT  NATION  IS  GREATEST  WHICH 
DARES  TRUST  IN  JUSTICE  RATHER 
THAN  IN  FORCE 

THERE  are  two  ways  of  defending  a 
nation.  One  is  to  build  vast  navies, 
line  the  shore  with  brazen  guns  and 
create  a  huge  army,  and  then  say  to  the  other 
nations:  “Touch  us  if  you  dare!”  The 
other  way  is  to  be  so  just  in  all  our  dealings 
with  men  at  home  and  nations  abroad,  to  ex¬ 
ercise  such  righteousness  and  good-will  that 
no  nation  anywhere  in  the  world  will  want  to 
attack  us  either  now  or  forever.  That  nation 
will  be  the  greatest  in  the  eyes  of  the  future 
— perhaps  a  nearer  future  than  we  think — 
which  dares  take  the  new  and  latter  way. 

It  is  the  coming  way.  For  all  the  poets  and 
prophets  of  all  the  nations  have  foretold  it,  and 
great  numbers  in  our  day  are  seeing  it.  It  is 
the  burden  of  the  Gospel  and  there  can  be 
no  real  religion  until  it  shall  have  come.  For 
there  can  be  no  lasting  Kingdom  built  on 
force  and  power  which  are  temporal.  It  is 
the  unseen  things,  good-will  and  justice, 

32 


Which  Dares  Trust  in  Justice  33 

which  are  eternal.  Force  and  power  can  be 
overcome  by  force  and  power  ;  those  nations 
which  rest  on  swords  will  perish  by  the 
swords.  But  nothing  in  heaven  or  earth  can 
conquer  justice  and  the  spirit  of  good-will. 

There  are  signs  everywhere  that  the  na¬ 
tions  are  sick  unto  death  of  the  old  way  and 
still  happier  signs  that  they  are  distrusting  it. 
The  burden  grows  unbearable  and  there  is  no 
relief  by  forever  adding  to  the  burden,  as  we 
are  doing  to-day.  Germany  builds  two  bat¬ 
tle-ships,  then  Great  Britain  builds  four ; 
whereupon  Germany  builds  six  and  Great 
Britain  builds  ten.  This  is  the  program  of 
all  the  nations,  and  every  country  basing  its 
defense  on  added  power  is  surely  draining 
herself  of  life  within.  All  the  resource  that 
might  go  into  the  uplift  of  the  nation  is  de¬ 
manded  by  battle-ships  and  guns,  while  relig¬ 
ion  and  education,  happiness  and  plenty,  lag 
behind.  All  the  vast  wealth  that  the  nations 
might  use  in  victorious  conflict  against  the 
common  foe, — vice,  intemperance,  poverty, 
disease,  ignorance — is  expended  in  self-de¬ 
fense  against  fancied  invaders. 

And  the  pity  of  it  is  that  force  does  not 
bring  that  very  security  each  nation  seeks. 
With  millions  put  into  armaments  during  the 
past  ten  years,  Great  Britain  and  Germany 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


34 

dread  each  other  more  to-day  than  ever,  and 
one  of  these  nations  has  been  on  such  a  verge 
of  panic  twice  during  this  period  tnat  she 
fairly  trembled.  For  three  thousand  years 
now  we  have  been  basing  our  civilization  on 
forCe— and  it  has  failed.  We  have  had  wars 
and  strifes  unending  and  if  history  has  any 
one  lesson  it  is  that  national  security  based 
on  force  is  an  eternal  fallacy  and  that  the  true 
greatness  of  a  nation  has  come  from  its  exer¬ 
cise  of  righteousness — not  of  arms. 

The  great  nation  of  the  future  will  be 
the  one  which  dares  trust  in  justice  for  secur¬ 
ity,  rather  than  in  force.  Might  we  dare  hope 
that  the  United  States  will  claim  this  high, 
prophetic  place  and  go  down  through  all  the 
wonderful  history  that  is  to  be,  as  the  first  na¬ 
tion  that  dared  trust  God,  and  man  and  jus¬ 
tice,  and  be  the  first  nation  to  win  for  herself 
the  title  of  the  great  deliverer  ?  Perhaps  it 
is  too  much  to  hope,  but  we  believe  with  all 
our  heart  that  should  she  take  this  high  place 
of  leadership,  she  would  be  more  secure  than 
the  vastest  navy  could  ever  make  her. 

We  believe  that  no  nation  would  ever 
think  of  harming  her,  and  that  her  word 
would  carry  more  weight  with  the  other  na¬ 
tions  than  the  word  of  the  greatest  armed 
power.  We  believe  that  if  this  nation  would 


Which  Dares  Trust  in  Justice 


35 

say  to  the  world  that  she  purposed  to  give 
justice  to  every  man  within  her  border  and  to 
every  nation  in  the  world,  and  would  rest  in 
that,  she  need  have  no  force  greater  than  that 
moderate  police  force  needed  to  parole  the 
seas.  We  believe  that  William  Jennings 
Bryan  was  right  when  he  made  this  truly 
Christian  utterance  at  Lake  Mohonk :  “  If 
this  nation  announced  to  the  world  that  it 
would  not  spend  its  money  getting  ready  for 
wars  that  ought  never  to  come,  that  it  would 
rather  try  to  prevent  the  coming  of  war,  that, 
as  it  did  not  intend  to  go  out  as  a  burglar,  it 
would  not  equip  itself  with  burglary  tools, 
that  it  had  faith  in  the  good  intent  of  other 
people,  and  it  expected  other  people  to  have 
faith  in  its  good  intent,  do  you  think  our  na¬ 
tion  would  suffer  for  that?” 

Should  this  nation  convince  the  world  that 
it  was  “  more  afraid  of  wronging  than  being 
wronged  to  use  the  fine  words  of  Socrates, 
it  would  soon  have  the  good-will  of  all  peo¬ 
ples.  We  believe  that  if  the  people  of  the 
United  States  could  learn  “  to  love  justice  and 
hate  wrong-doing ;  to  be  considerate  in  their 
judgment  and  kindly  in  feeling  towards  aliens 
as  towards  their  own  friends  and  neighbours; 
and  to  desire  that  their  own  country  shall  re¬ 
gard  the  rights  of  others  rather  than  be  grasp- 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


36 

ing  and  overreaching,”  to  use  the  words  of 
Elihu  Root,  this  nation  would  have  little 
to  fear  from  wars.  We  believe  that  Lord 
Brougham  spoke  the  truth  when  he  said : 
“  Let  the  soldier  be  abroad  if  he  will,  he  can  do 
nothing  in  this  age.  There  is  another  per¬ 
sonage, — a  personage  less  imposing  in  the 
eyes  of  some  ;  the  schoolmaster  is  abroad, 
and  I  trust  to  him,  armed  with  the  primer, 
against  the  soldier  in  full  military  array.” 

We  are  not  urging  disarmament  here,  al¬ 
though  the  author  would  fear  nothing  for 
his  country  should  she  quite  disarm  and  at 
the  same  time  practice  justice  and  good-will 
towards  all.  But  granted  that  some  arma¬ 
ment  is  necessary  as  some  police  force  is 
necessary  within  a  city,  the  question  is :  Shall 
America  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  the  old 
world,  and  becoming  a  great  military  power, 
as  many  are  urging  her  to  become,  put  her 
trust  in  awe-inspiring  and  ever  increasing 
force,  or  shall  she  be  greatest  of  nations  and 
put  her  trust  in  the  good-will  towards  her  of 
all  people,  because  she  practiced  justice  and 
good-will  first  towards  them?  Josephine 
Shaw  Lowell  was  safer  among  the  roughest 
men  of  the  great  city  than  the  man  with  pis¬ 
tols  in  his  hands,  because  she  was  there  to  do 
them  good. 


Which  Dares  Trust  in  Justice  37 

We  know  that  many  will  doubt  the  in¬ 
fluence  and  security  of  our  country  among 
the  nations,  armed  with  justice  rather  than 
with  power,  but  let  them  remember  this  out¬ 
standing  fact:  that  both  her  influence  and 
her  security  have  never  depended  upon  her 
power,  but  upon  just  these  moral  qualities. 
It  has  actually  been  her  justice  and  not  her 
arms  that  has  made  her  heeded  of  the 
world  !  When  the  Boxer  trouble  occurred 
in  China,  it  was  in  our  nation  that  China  put 
her  trust  and  confidence,  and  it  was  our 
words  she  heeded  above  the  great  armed 
powers.  When  the  President  of  the  United 
States  intervened  between  warring  Japan 
and  Russia,  both  nations  heeded  us,  not  be¬ 
cause  of  any  army  or  navy,  but  because  they 
believed  that  we  loved  justice  and  were  dis¬ 
interested  people. 

It  is  admitted  by  all  that  at  the  Second 
Hague  Conference  the  United  States  carried 
most  weight  and  that  every  nation  listened 
when  she  spoke.  But  it  was  not  because  of 
a  big  stick  behind  our  words.  It  was  be¬ 
cause  the  nations  trusted  and  respected  us. 
It  is  to  the  United  States  that  the  South 
American  nations  turn  in  any  trouble — and 
would  turn  oftener  were  we  more  just — not 
because  of  our  armament,  but  because  they 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


38 

believe  in  us.  The  formation  of  the  Pan- 
American  Union  in  Washington  and  the 
building  of  the  palace  by  Mr.  Carnegie, 
which  is  its  home,  gave  the  United  States 
more  influence  in  South  America  than  twenty 
new  battle-ships  would  have  done.  Indeed, 
these  states  never  began  to  distrust  us  until 
we  used  force  and  began  to  talk  of  big 
navies.  The  United  States  was  just  as 
much  a  world  power  before  she  had  a  great 
navy  as  she  is  to-day. 

When  it  comes  to  national  security  the 
story  is  the  same.  If  some  one  says  that 
only  great  force,  not  justice,  can  prevent  her 
being  attacked  and  invaded  by  other  na¬ 
tions,  the  convincing  answer  is  :  “  The  facts 
are  all  against  you.”  For  one  hundred  years 
now  there  has  been  neither  fort  nor  battle¬ 
ship  on  the  three-thousand  mile  boundary 
line  between  Canada  and  the  United  States, 
and  the  people  along  that  line  to-day  rest  in 
greater  sense  of  security  than  the  people 
underneath  the  walls  of  Fortress  Monroe. 
Canada  does  not  attack  the  United  States 
for  the  two  simple  reasons  that  she  knows 
we  have  nothing  but  good-will  for  her  and 
she  has  nothing  but  good-will  for  us. 

But  other  nations  !  Well,  what  reason  is 
there  for  any  other  nation  having  more 


Which  Dares  Trust  in  Justice  39 

enmity  towards  us  than  has  Canada  ?  Ger¬ 
many  has  none.  Right  million  Germans  are 
in  America  and  all  over  Germany  there  is 
affection  for  us  because  we  have  treated 
Germans  as  Americans, — indeed,  have 
adopted  them.  To  speak  of  arming  our¬ 
selves  against  England  is  too  base  a  thought 
to  dwell  upon,  for  the  two  nations  are  cele¬ 
brating  their  one  hundred  years  of  peace. 
China  and  Japan  ?  We  have  already  armed 
ourselves  against  them  by  disarming  them 
of  any  suspicions  against  us.  China  is  send¬ 
ing  five  hundred  students  a  year  to  us  as  her 
invasion,  and  Japan  is  sending  her  lasting 
gratitude  every  day,  and  her  admiration  of 
our  moral  greatness  in  all  dealings  with  her 
by  every  messenger  and  message. 

It  is  our  justice  that  makes  us  great  with 
the  nations,  and  not  our  gunboats.  When 
our  gunboats  go  around  the  world  there  is 
no  evidence  of  the  fleet  increasing  our  great¬ 
ness  with  the  nations,  and  the  fleet  scared  no 
nation  as  our  bellicose  President  intended  it 
should,  simply  because  every  nation  felt  it 
had  nothing  to  be  afraid  of  from  the  people 
of  the  United  States.  It  is  our  justice  to  the 
foreigners  who  come  to  us,  our  friendliness 
to  other  countries,  the  belief  of  other  nations 
that  we  have  no  desire  or  intention  to  seize 


40 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


their  land,  our  reputation  for  loving  peace 
rather  than  war,  our  continued  advocacy  of 
the  substitution  of  judicial  methods  for  war, 
that  gives  us  power  with  other  nations  and 
gives  us  security  from  attack  by  them. 

The  great  mystery  of  our  time  is  that  so 
many  cannot  see  facts  so  patent,  and  go  on 
clamouring  for  the  United  States  to  fall  back 
into  the  littleness  and  transiency  of  those 
who  trust  in  force,  when  she  ought  to  be 
moving  first  of  all  out  into  the  greatness  of 
those  who  trust  in  national  character.  For 
character  is  going  to  be  both  the  power  and 
safeguard  of  the  great  nations  of  the  future 
as  it  long  has  been  the  power  and  security 
of  all  great  men.  It  was  said  of  David 
Livingstone  that  his  goodness  made  him 
secure  against  all  attacks  from  savages. 
But  to-day  nations  are  civilized,  and  surely 
our  goodness  would  save  us  from  them  all. 
If  one  nation  is  the  first  to  see  this,  she  is 
going  to  be  the  greatest  nation  the  earth  has 
ever  known. 


V 


THAT  NATION  WILL  BE  GREATEST 
WHICH  FIRST  PRACTISES  THE 
NEW  PATRIOTISM 

THE  earliest  form  of  patriotism  con¬ 
sisted  in  the  hatred  of  all  other 
countries  but  one’s  own.  It  mani¬ 
fested  itself  in  frequent  wars,  and  he  was  the 
greatest  patriot  who  had  slain  the  most  men 
of  other  nations.  It  has  not  altogether 
vanished  from  the  earth,  although  it  is 
not  the  prevalent  manifestation  in  our  day. 
It  was  only  fifteen  years  ago  that  a  French¬ 
man  remarked  that  the  chief  patriotic  sen¬ 
timent  he  had  had  drilled  into  him  as  a  child 
was  hatred  of  Germany.  There  have  been 
attempts  to  revive  it  in  Germany  and 
England  ;  fierce  bigots  have  tried  to  stir  up 
hatred  in  each  of  these  nations  against  the 
other,  but  with  only  partial  success.  It  has 
largely  perished  in  the  United  States,  and 
recent  attempts  to  “  kindle  patriotism  ”  by  in¬ 
fluencing  hatred  towards  Japan  and  towards 
England  have  proved  most  abortive.  We 
have  passed  beyond  that  stage.  The  average 

41 


42  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 

American  no  longer  conceives  hatred  of  the 
foreigner  as  equivalent  to  love  of  his  own 
country. 

But  if  we  have  passed  beyond  this  crude 
and  somewhat  barbaric  form  of  patriotism, 
there  is  still  much  left  of  a  phase  of  it  that  is 
both  mischievous  and  unworthy  of  men  who 
would  see  their  nation  truly  great.  This 
consists  of  a  blind  devotion  to  one’s  nation, 
regardless  of  her  course,  and  is  expressed  in 
a  motto,  than  which  one  more  opposed  to  the 
ultimate  welfare  of  a  nation  never  existed : 
“  My  country,  may  she  be  always  right,  but 
my  country  right  or  wrong,”  which  motto 
would  place  one’s  country  on  exactly  the 
same  level  with  those  lodges  which  defend 
their  members,  even  when  they  are  proven 
criminals. 

Its  latest  manifestation  was  in  Italy,  where 
certain  Italians  confessed  that  their  country 
did  wrong  in  breaking  the  Hague  covenant 
and  in  seizing  Tripoli  simply  for  territory, 
but,  she  having  done  so,  it  was  their  duty  to 
stand  by  her.  Those  few  who  loved  the  fair 
name  of  Italy  enough  to  protest,  were  per¬ 
secuted  as  were  those  real  lovers  of  their 
country  who  in  England  protested  against 
the  Boer  War.  Happily  this  ideal  of  patriot¬ 
ism  is  passing.  At  least,  it  is  not  emphasized 


Which  Practises  the  New  Patriotism  43 

so  much  in  times  of  peace.  But  there  is 
enough  of  it  left  to  suddenly  seize  a  nation 
when  war  breaks  out.  It  was  not  long  ago 
that  our  own  people  forgot  to  ask  whether 
the  attack  on  Spain  was  just  or  unjust,  when 
the  nation  had  been  fanned  into  the  war  frenzy 
by  the  jingoes  and  screeching  press. 

The  form  of  patriotism  that  is  perhaps  that 
which  lies  in  the  subconsciousness  of  most 
Americans  to-day  is  a  sort  of  emergency 
patriotism.  In  times  of  peace  it  consists  of  a 
somewhat  sentimental  devotion  to  one’s 
country,  exemplified  mostly  in  saluting  the 
flag  and  singing  national  hymns,  and  in  times 
of  war  the  willingness  to  die  for  one’s  country. 
Even  to-day,  patriotism  in  most  people’s 
minds  is  associated  with  war.  The  patriot 
is  one  who  has  died  on  the  field  of  battle. 
The  monuments  are  mostly  built  to  soldiers. 
Our  patriotic  hymns  gather  about  war.  Our 
two  patriotic  occasions  are  Independence 
Day  and  Memorial  Day.  Our  histories  and 
orations  have,  until  quite  recently,  praised 
only  the  soldier  as  patriot.  We  welcome 
under  triumphal  arches  and  with  mighty 
acclamations  those  returning  from  the  wars 
as  our  great  children. 

In  reaction  from  this  false  and  primitive 
patriotism  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  to  the 


That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 


44 

extremes  of  Tolstoy  or  Herv&  or  Moscheles, 
although  it  is  natural  enough  that  these  men 
should  have  come  to  dread  the  very  word, 
seeing,  as  they  have,  how  this  perverted  form 
of  it  has  stood  in  the  way  of  that  growth  of 
humanity  as  a  whole  which  is  greater  than 
the  fancied  welfare  of  any  nation  ;  and  seeing 
as  they  have,  how  it  has  always  emphasized 
a  nation’s  rights  instead  of  her  duties  (which 
principle,  when  applied  to  individuals,  is  con¬ 
sidered  unchristian  by  this  same  people). 
But  inherently,  there  is  no  more  reason  why 
a  proper  love  of  one’s  country  should  interfere 
with  a  devotion  to  humanity  any  more  than 
a  love  of  one’s  home  should  prescribe  one’s 
devotion  to  his  native  land.  Where  all  of 
these  writers  are  probably  right,  however,  is 
in  their  contention  that  most  love  of  country 
is  a  manufactured,  artificial  thing.  Even  the 
old-fashioned  patriotism  did  not  spring  spon¬ 
taneous  from  childlike  hearts,  but  was  an 
expression  of  passions  along  avenues  pre¬ 
viously  prepared  for  it. 

Their  contention  that  most  countries  have 
never  done  enough  for  their  people  to  elicit 
any  natural  affection  is  probably  true  in 
many  instances.  But  where  nations  are 
striving  to  care  for  their  people,  as  some  are 
to-day,  there  is  no  reason  why  there  should 


Which  Practises  the  New  Patriotism  45 

not  be  an  affection  for  them,  and  likewise 
there  is  no  reason  why  this  afEection  should 
not  assume  such  form  as  to  be  not  only 
beautiful  and  commendable,  but  of  genuine 
service  to  all  humanity,  just  as  a  man’s  love 
for  his  home  may  be  the  most  helpful  asset  of 
the  community. 

There  are  many  signs  that  this  “  new  pa¬ 
triotism  ”  is  rising  upon  the  souls  of  men.  It 
is  running  like  a  thread  of  light  through  much 
of  our  best  literature  and  poetry.  It  is  seen 
in  the  utterances  of  our  greatest  statesmen — 
those  who  feel  the  movements  of  this  century 
and  can  sense  their  high  direction.  It  ap¬ 
pears  in  all  this  sudden  international  organi¬ 
zation  of  all  churches,  societies  and  institu¬ 
tions,  and  in  the  innumerable  world  con¬ 
gresses  being  held.  The  remarkable  spread 
of  the  peace  movement  in  recent  years  is  but 
a  manifestation  of  it.  The  Hague  Confer¬ 
ences  are  an  outgrowth  of  it.  The  rising  of 
the  gospel  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  has 
gone  on  beside  it.  The  cooperative  instinct 
everywhere  observed  among  the  labouring 
men  of  Europe,  regardless  of  nationality,  is  a 
pronounced  flowering  of  it.  It  is  a  patriot¬ 
ism  of  peace,  and  not  of  war,  a  patriotism 
“  whose  courage  is  of  life,  not  death.”  It  is  a 
heroism  of  service  and  not  of  destruction.  It 


46  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 

is  love  of  country  which,  while  true  to  the 
highest  in  one’s  own  nation,  at  the  same  time 
blesses  every  other.  It  is  a  national  devotion 
which  is  stripped  of  all  that  selfishness  that 
makes  it  exclusive  and  provincial.  It  is  a 
patriotism  in  which  all  nations  will  rejoice 
with  the  nation  which  holds  it. 

The  nation  that  can  first  learn  and  practise 
it  will  be  the  greatest  nation  of  the  twentieth 
century.  Will  the  United  States  be  this  na¬ 
tion?  Yes,  if  she  can  convince  her  people 
that  real  love  of  country  manifests  itself  in  a 
passionate  desire  to  make  one’s  land  just  and 
honourable,  and  the  fairest  and  freest  of  all 
lands.  Already  this  newer  patriotism  has 
taken  deep  root  in  many  hearts,  and  our  most 
gifted  leaders  are  realizing  that  true  patriotism 
reveals  itself  not  in  shouting,  singing  or  fight¬ 
ing,  but  in  a  real  devotion  to  the  country’s 
highest  welfare. 

The  patriotism  of  the  twentieth  century 
will  insist  that  the  nation  treat  every  man 
within  her  borders  justly,  and  see  that  he  gets 
justice.  And  likewise  it  will  demand  that 
the  nation  keep  her  promise  made  to  other 
nations,  for  it  will  see  that  her  loss  of  honour 
is  greater  than  her  loss  of  territory,  or  of  a 
few  lives  in  battle.  It  would  be  infinitely 
more  of  a  degradation  to  our  nation  to  lose 


Which  Practises  the  New  Patriotism  47 

the  respect  of  Europe  because  we  broke  our 
treaty  promises  than  to  have  lost  the  Spanish 
War.  This  new  patriotism  will  realize  that 
political  purity  and  legislative  honesty  are 
far  higher  assets  of  a  nation  than  huge  fleets 
and  armies. 

So  the  patriot  of  the  future  will  be  the  man 
who  lives  for  his  country,  as  well  as  dies  for  it, 
and  he  who  dies  in  her  service  while  saving  life 
will  be  a  greater  patriot  than  he  who  dies  for 
her  while  destroying  other  lives.  The  hero 
of  the  future  will  be  of  the  industrial,  profes¬ 
sional,  and  labouring  world,  not  of  the  battle¬ 
field,  except  as  he  may  defend  his  country 
from  wanton  attack.  (The  United  States  will 
never  be  attacked  if  true  patriotism  prevails 
and  makes  her  just  and  honourable.)  The 
hero  fund,  whose  awards  are  always  to  go  to 
those  who  save  life,  never  to  those  who  take 
it,  is  not  only  a  premonition  of  the  new  pa¬ 
triotism,  but  has  wonderfully  helped  its  com¬ 
ing  by  directing  the  attention  of  the  world 
from  the  battle-field  to  the  civic  and  indus¬ 
trial  sphere  as  the  true  field  of  bravery.  Not 
insignificant  is  it  that  at  a  recent  vote  taken 
in  the  Paris  schools  on  France’s  greatest  hero, 
the  vote  which  twenty  years  ago  would  have 
put  Napoleon,  who  took  over  three  million 
lives,  at  the  head  of  the  list,  placed  him  far 


48  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 

down  the  list,  and  hailed  Pasteur  as  the  true 
patriot  of  France. 

Richard  Watson  Gilder  has  put  the  spirit 
of  the  new  patriotism  in  lines  that  cannot  be 
too  often  quoted : 

“  'Twas  said  :  ‘  When  roll  of  drum  and  battle’s  roar 
Shall  cease  upon  the  earth,  O,  then  no  more 

“  ‘The  deed,  the  race,  of  heroes  in  the  land.’ 

But  scarce  that  word  was  breathed  when  one  small 
hand 

“  Lifted  victorious  o’er  a  giant  wrong 
That  had  its  victims  crushed  through  ages  long  ; 

“  Some  woman  set  her  pale  and  quivering  face, 

Firm  as  a  rock,  against  a  man’s  disgrace ; 

“  A  little  child  suffered  in  silence  lest 
His  savage  pain  should  wound  a  mother’s  breast ; 

“  Some  quiet  scholar  flung  his  gauntlet  down 
And  risked,  in  Truth’s  great  name,  the  synod’s 
frown ; 

“  A  civic  hero,  in  the  calm  realm  of  laws, 

Did  that  which  suddenly  drew  a  world’s  applause; 

“  And  one  to  the  pest  his  lithe  young  body  gave 
That  he  a  thousand  thousand  lives  might  save.” 

Will  the  United  States  be  the  nation  to 
first  learn  the  new  patriotism?  Yes,  if  she 
can  convince  her  people  that  their  real 


Which  Practises  the  New  Patriotism  49 

enemies  are  not  outside  her  borders,  but 
within  her  walls,  and  direct  their  energies  to 
fighting  these  imminent  and  threatening  foes 
instead  of  expending  them  upon  imagined 
enemies  or  in  wars  which  leave  no  gain. 
The  real  enemies  of  the  United  States  are 
not  England,  Germany  or  Japan,  but  the 
liquor  interests  ;  those  who  purvey  vice  and 
live  on  it ;  those  who  adulterate  foods  ;  those 
who  buy  up  legislatures,  take  bribes  and 
receive  graft ;  those  who  exploit  children  for 
profit ;  those  who  conduct  business  on  the 
level  with  pirates ;  those  who  defraud  the 
people  and  the  government.  These  are  the 
real  enemies  of  the  United  States. 

No  truer  words  have  been  spoken  than 
those  of  one  of  our  eminent  judges:  “The 
dangers,  if  any  exist  to  the  nation,  the  state, 
or  the  city,  are  not  in  things  outside  of 
them  ;  not  in  the  Yellow  Peril,  not  in  foreign 
enemies,  nor  in  foreign  countries.  The 
dangers  lurk  deeper,  in  the  distemper,  the 
bad  spirit,  the  ignorance,  corruption,  evasion 
of  jury  duty  and  other  public  duties,  and 
apathy  among  the  people,  in  popular  errors 
concerning  the  law,  the  state,  and  our  obli¬ 
gations  to  it.” 

The  patriotism  of  the  future  will  be  di¬ 
rected  to  saving  the  nation  from  these  real 


50  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 

enemies,  and  will  have  no  thought  of  the  old 
warfare  with  nations  in  the  hard  fight  against 
these  foes.  It  will  also  expend  itself  in  mak¬ 
ing  these  thousands  of  foreigners  who  come 
to  us,  knowing  nothing  of  our  ways  or  ideals, 
but  potential  with  superb  good  for  the  na¬ 
tion,  into  good  citizens.  Sacrificial  citizen¬ 
ship  is  the  coming  patriotism.  It  will  ex¬ 
pend  itself  in  creating  a  nation’s  honour,  not 
defending  it.  “  Honour’s  wounds  are  always 
self-inflicted,”  says  Mr.  Carnegie,  in  one  of 
the  truest  and  finest  epigrams  ever  uttered. 
Those  who  have  fought  disease,  poverty,  and 
vice  will  have  the  monuments  of  the  future, 
— not  those  who  have  fought  the  Spaniards. 

The  new  patriotism  will  be  as  intense  a 
love  of  country  as  was  the  old,  but  it  will 
take  the  form  of  wanting  to  make  her  as 
good  and  great  as  possible  for  the  service 
she  can  render  all  other  nations.  The  patriot 
of  the  future  will  devote  himself  ardently  to 
his  country,  in  order  that  he  make  her  such 
a  nation  as  can  be  an  example  to  all  others ; 
protector  of  all  weak  countries,  haven  of  all 
oppressed  peoples,  guardian  of  all  threatened 
liberties,  champion  of  human  rights  in  all 
lands,  missionary  of  light  and  knowledge, 
science  and  truth  to  all  backward  races, 
mother  of  all  childlike  peoples,  nurse  of  all 


Which  Practises  the  New  Patriotism  51 

famine-stricken  lands,  leader  in  all  high 
causes.  Who  would  not  love  with  maternal 
devotion  the  nation  who  strove  thus  to  bless 
all  peoples?  How  greatest  among  nations 
the  United  States  will  be,  if  some  day  she 
attain  this  high  ideal. 

And,  best  of  all,  the  United  States  will  be 
the  greatest  nation  in  the  world  if  she  can  be 
first  to  teach  her  people  the  patriotism  that 
is  surely  rising  on  the  vision  of  the  world — 
namely,  that  dedication  to  humanity  is  higher 
than  devotion  to  city,  state,  or  country  alone. 
It  is  what  has  been  called  the  cosmic  patriot¬ 
ism — the  feeling  that  man  is  one  in  all  his 
aspirations  and  despairs,  victories  and  de¬ 
feats,  joys  and  sorrows,  with  all  men  every¬ 
where,  regardless  of  race  or  nationality.  It  is 
what  Mrs.  Elmer  Black  has  called  “  the  new 
world-consciousness,”  the  sense  of  citizenship 
in  humanity  as  being  greater  than  citizen¬ 
ship  in  any  land.  It  is  what  many  are  call¬ 
ing  the  new  internationalism, — the  sense  that 
in  this  twentieth  century  of  banished  dis¬ 
tances  and  inter-related  life,  all  the  nations 
are  wrapt  up  in  the  same  destiny. 

It  does  not  mean  that  one  should  love  his 
country  less,  any  more  than  it  means  that 
love  of  country  prevents  one  devoting  him¬ 
self  to  the  welfare  of  his  state.  But  it  does 


52  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 

mean  the  consciousness  that  all  men  are  our 
brothers  and  that  neighbourhood  is  not  to  be 
bounded  by  sect,  race  or  nation,  but  by  man¬ 
hood  and  by  need.  It  is  the  vision  that 
Lowell  caught  fifty  years  ago  when  he  sang 
that  prophetic  song  of  the  true  man’s  father- 
land  being  wherever  men  were  in  bonds  or 
seeking  the  same  high  freedom  as  himself. 
It  is  the  great  proclamation  of  the  Gospel 
that  membership  in  the  Kingdom  of  God 
should  transcend  all  lesser  boundaries.  It  is 
the  growing  sense  of  the  brotherhood  of  man 
as  being  the  final  test  of  all  one’s  actions — 
even  above  citizenship  in  any  state.  When 
it  comes  it  will  mean  the  end  of  war,  for  all 
wars  spring  from  devotion  to  state  or  nation 
being  put  above  love  of  humanity  or  sense 
of  human  brotherhood.  To  a  Tolstoy,  par¬ 
ticipation  in  war  is  impossible,  because  a 
German  or  a  Frenchman  is  as  much  his 
brother  as  a  Russian.  This  will  be  the 
patriotism  of  us  all  when  we  begin  to  com¬ 
prehend  Jesus,  for  it  is  His  fundamental  teach¬ 
ing  on  its  social  side. 

And  it  is  coming  faster  than  men  dream. 
Already  the  working  men  of  England,  Ger¬ 
many  and  France,  in  their  annual  congresses 
are  asking :  “  Why  should  we  fight  each 
other,  simply  because  we  are  born  under 


Which  Practises  the  New  Patriotism  53 

different  flags  ?  Are  we  not  all  men  of  com¬ 
mon  ambitions,  common  struggles,  common 
joys?”  Already  the  poets  and  preachers 
are  seeing  it,  and  many  dramatists  and 
chroniclers  of  stories.  Here  and  there  are 
great  statesmen  rising  out  of  the  provincial¬ 
ism  of  the  old  patriotism  into  the  world  out¬ 
look  of  the  new.  All  our  organizations,  re¬ 
ligious,  social,  economic,  scientific,  literary, 
are  becoming  international  and  are  holding 
world  congresses  by  the  score.  Every  one 
of  these  congresses  is  a  step  towards  this 
sense  of  international  unity, — world  citizen¬ 
ship. 

That  international  hospitality  or  exchange 
of  visits  of  eminent  citizens  of  different 
countries  everywhere  is  growing,  and  when 
the  reciprocal  visits  of  rulers  shall  come,  for 
which  Mr.  Carnegie  so  beautifully  appeals  in 
his  New  Year’s  letter  of  1913,  it  will  mean 
that  they  shall  “  discard  distrust  and  learn  to 
trust  each  other,  and  the  chief  nations  will 
soon  begin  to  act  in  unison,  drawing  the 
others  with  them  into  International  Peace.” 

In  our  own  nation  it  is  coming  fast — and 
this  makes  us  hope  that  here  will  come  the 
new  patriotism  first,  and  America  be  greatest 
— because  here  have  been  thrown  together  all 
the  nations  of  the  world  into  one  community 


54  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 

life,  and  in  common,  kindly,  helpful,  coopera¬ 
tive  living,  in  friendships  and  intermarriages. 
Scandinavians,  Germans,  French,  Poles, 
Slavs,  Italians  and  Greeks,  are  learning  that 
those  national  distinctions  that  once  made 
them  foes  were  passing  accidents,  while  their 
common  humanity  is  the  eternal  and  abiding 
thing. 

No  one  has  more  beautifully  expressed  this 
than  has  Jane  Addams  in  “  Newer  Ideals  of 
Peace  ”  and  with  her  prophetic  words  we 
close  this  chapter:  “It  is  possible  that  we 
shall  be  saved  from  warfare  by  the  ‘  fighting 
rabble  ’  itself,  by  the  ‘  quarrelsome  mob  ’ 
turned  into  kindly  citizens  of  the  world 
through  the  pressure  of  a  cosmopolitan 
neighbourhood.  It  is  not  that  they  are 
shouting  for  peace — on  the  contrary,  if  they 
shout  at  all,  they  will  continue  to  shout  for 
war — but  that  they  are  really  attaining  cos¬ 
mopolitan  relations  through  daily  experience. 
They  will  probably  believe  for  a  long  time 
that  war  is  noble  and  necessary  both  to 
engender  and  cherish  patriotism  ;  and  yet  all 
of  the  time,  below  their  shouting,  they  are 
living  in  the  kingdom  of  human  kindness. 
They  are  laying  the  simple  and  inevitable 
foundations  for  an  international  order  as  the 
foundations  of  tribal  and  national  morality 


Which  Practises  the  New  Patriotism  55 

have  already  been  laid.  They  are  develop¬ 
ing  the  only  sort  of  patriotism  consistent  with 
the  intermingling  of  the  nations ;  for  the 
citizens  of  a  cosmopolitan  quarter  find  an 
insuperable  difficulty  when  they  attempt  to 
hem  in  their  conception  of  patriotism  either 
to  the  ‘  old  country  ’  or  to  their  adopted  one. 

“  There  arises  the  hope  that  when  this  newer 
patriotism  becomes  large  enough,  it  will  over¬ 
look  arbitrary  boundaries  and  soak  up  the 
notion  of  nationalism.  We  may  then  give 
up  war,  because  we  shall  find  it  as  difficult  to 
make  war  upon  a  nation  at  the  other  side  of 
the  globe  as  upon  our  next-door  neighbour.  ’ 


VI 


THAT  NATION  WILL  BE  GREATEST  WHICH 
LEADS  THE  OTHER  NATIONS  INTO 
THE  NEW  ORDER 

ANEW  order  is  rising  in  the  minds  of 
men.  For  three  thousand  years  our 
civilization  has  been  based  on  force. 
By  far  the  greater  part  of  all  the  money  of 
the  past  has  gone  into  war  and  preparation 
for  war.  The  nations  have  spent  ten  dollars 
on  militarism  to  every  one  on  education. 
Even  to-day,  there  is  but  one  nation  spending 
as  much  on  her  schools  as  on  her  armaments. 
The  nations  of  Europe  are  groaning  under 
war  debts  that  perhaps  they  never  can  pay. 
The  real  rulers  of  Europe  to-day  are  not  her 
kings  or  her  people  but  certain  great  bank¬ 
ing  houses,  which  have  all  the  nations  in 
their  power.1  Most  of  the  inventive  genius 
of  the  past  has  gone  into  implements  of 
destruction. 

Things  have  changed  somewhat,  but  even 
to-day  the  chief  interest  in  air-ships  centres 
in  their  use  as  instruments  of  war.  The 

1  See  “  The  Unseen  Empire,”  by  David  Starr  Jordan. 

56 


Which  Leads  Nations  Into  New  Order  57 

nations  have  given  their  best  life  to  war,  and 
left  the  weaklings  to  breed  the  present  race. 
The  men  of  Europe  are  physically,  mentally, 
and  morally  far  inferior  to  what  they  might 
have  been  had  not  all  her  noblest,  best  and 
bravest  been  destroyed  in  battle,  leaving  the 
race  to  be  bred  by  those  unfit  for  war.  This 
is  the  price  we  have  paid  for  a  civilization 
based  on  force — this  in  addition  to  the 
immeasurable  suffering,  sorrow,  anguish, 
poverty,  hatred,  revenge,  disease,  and  re¬ 
tarded  civilization. 

And  the  nations  are  not  far  out  of  this 
slough  of  despond,  this  swamp  of  misery. 
The  burden  of  armament  is  fast  becoming 
too  great  to  bear.  Wars  are  less  frequent, 
but  they  still  persist.  In  the  preparation  for 
war  there  is  no  cessation  at  all.  Germany 
and  England  are  in  a  mad  race  of  battle-ship 
building  that  not  only  promises  to  bankrupt 
both  nations  soon,  but  is  taking  the  millions 
of  dollars  they  need  to  lift  their  people  out  of 
poverty,  ignorance  and  disease.  The  other 
nations  are  following  close  behind.  Hun¬ 
dreds  of  thousands  of  men  are  taken  from 
productive  labour  every  year.  The  genius 
of  men  is  turned  in  the  direction  of  force. 
The  minds  of  men  are  continually  kept  upon 
force  as  the  basis  of  civilization.  Armament 


58  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 

is  so  much  more  prominent  than  religion 
that  men  distrust  the  latter  and  instinctively 
trust  in  force.  Guns  are  more  in  evidence 
than  gospel,  therefore  men  trust  in  guns. 
The  burden  grows  more  and  more  unbear¬ 
able. 

In  all  these  lands  there  is  a  yearning 
among  great  masses  to  find  some  way  out. 
In  every  nation  there  is  a  growing  number 
of  prophetic  men  who  are  beginning  to  catch 
a  glimpse  of  a  better  way ;  who  are  seeing 
visions  of  a  new  order,  based  not  on  force  but 
on  justice  ;  not  upon  guns  but  upon  gospel ; 
not  upon  battle-ship  but  upon  statesmanship  ; 
not  upon  militarism  but  upon  good-will ;  not 
upon  war,  but  upon  law  ;  not  on  arming 
against  each  other,  but  on  cooperation  and 
brotherhood ;  not  on  violence  and  destruc¬ 
tion,  but  on  righteousness  and  friendly  minis¬ 
try. 

The  possibility  of  a  court  where  nations 
can  take  their  disputes,  as  states  and  individ¬ 
uals  take  theirs,  and  of  arbitration  treaties 
binding  nations  to  the  same  agreements  that 
now  bind  all  gentlemen  in  their  relationships, 
is  becoming  a  sure  and  fixed  conviction  in 
more  minds  every  year.  In  every  nation, 
men  are  believing  that  a  body  of  law  can  be 
made  by  the  nations  for  all  the  nations,  which 


Which  Leads  Nations  Into  New  Order  59 

it  shall  be  criminal  to  break.  A  greater  unity 
of  the  world  is  being  hailed  in  every  land. 
The  new  order  of  law  and  statesmanship, 
good-will  and  international  unity,  is  surely 
possible,  and  as  inevitable  some  day  as  is 
freedom  from  despotism.  That  will  be  the 
greatest  nation  which  can  lead  the  other  na¬ 
tions  up  into  these  shining  table-lands. 

The  United  States  should  be  the  one  na¬ 
tion  to  achieve  this  greatness  of  leading  all  the 
other  governments  into  the  new  order  where 
international  relationships  shall  be  based  on 
law  and  justice,  as  individual  and  national 
relationships  already  are.  Everything  des¬ 
ignates  her  as  the  prophet  and  leader  of  this 
certain  evolution.  Her  position  makes  it 
easy  for  her.  With  two  great  oceans,  worth 
whole  areas  of  fleets  and  lines  of  forts,  she 
need  take  little  thought  of  self-defense.  She 
has  no  entangling  alliances  with  other  na¬ 
tions,  no  enemies  among  them,  no  ancient 
feuds  and  jealousies  between  herself  and 
other  powers ;  she  is  esteemed  of  all,  and 
until  recently  was  believed  of  all  nations  to 
be  seeking  justice  above  self-interest.  When 
she  has  spoken,  the  other  nations  have 
listened,  and  because  of  this  aloofness  from 
the  strife  and  mutual  jealousies  of  European 
states,  her  words  have  carried  weight. 


6o 


That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 


The  constitution  of  her  population  gives 
her  supreme  right  to  speak  the  leading  word 
in  common  friendliness  and  good-will,  be¬ 
cause  she  has  proved  its  possibility  within 
her  own  borders  where  all  the  ancient  war¬ 
ring  nations  are  now  living  in  kindly,  mu¬ 
tual  relationship.  Andrew  Carnegie  has  well 
said  :  “  Well  do  the  intelligent  masses  of 
Europe  and  of  our  southern  republics  know 
and  appreciate  the  mission  of  this  Republic 
in  drawing  all  ranks  and  classes  together  in 
the  bonds  of  brotherhood.  Her  representa¬ 
tives  will  not  lack  support  in  these  lands  or 
in  Canada  when  they  urge  that  all  interna¬ 
tional  disputes  shall  be  arbitrated  that  the 
world’s  peace  may  remain  unbroken.” 

The  United  States  has  led  in  this  move¬ 
ment  from  the  beginning.  Our  great  states¬ 
men,  William  Penn,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
George  Washington,  Thomas  Jefferson, 
Charles  Sumner,  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  John 
Hay,  David  J.  Brewer,  and  nearly  all  the 
others  to  Elihu  Root,  William  J.  Bryan, 
William  H.  Taft,  and  Woodrow  Wilson 
have  been  ardent  advocates  of  the  new  order, 
-—the  substitution  of  courts  and  treaties  for 
wars  and  armament.  Our  greatest  prophets 
have  lifted  up  their  voices  or  penned  their 


Which  Leads  Nations  Into  New  Order  61 

burning  words  against  war  and  in  favour  of 
law  and  justice. 

The  American  Church  may  well  be  proud 
that,  almost  without  exception,  her  great 
prophets  have  spoken  passionately  on  this 
theme, — such  preachers  as  Bushnell,  Chan- 
ning,  Beecher,  Hale,  Brooks,  and  Bradford. 
And  to-day — let  us  record  it  here — there  is 
hardly  a  minister  of  any  eminence  in  the 
whole  nation  who  is  not  eloquently  pleading 
for  the  United  States  to  lead  the  world  into 
the  new  order.  All  our  poets  have  been 
singers  of  the  new  day,  and  our  literature  is 
rich  in  peace  poems  from  the  pens  of  Emerson, 
Lowell,  Longfellow  and  Whittier. 

America  has  always  had  a  splendid  group 
of  men  who  have  organized  associations  for 
the  promotion  of  international  arbitration — 
William  Ladd,  Elihu  Burritt,  William  Dodge, 
Albert  K.  Smiley,  Benjamin  F.  Trueblood, 
Alfred  Love,  Edwin  D.  Mead,  and  many 
others.  It  is  in  our  land  that  the  business 
men  have  turned  idealists  and  have  offered 
their  voice  and  money  to  make  the  United 
States  the  leader  of  nations — such  men  as 
Andrew  Carnegie  and  Edwin  Ginn.  The 
educators,  headed  by  such  college  presidents 
as  Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  Charles  W.  Eliot, 
and  David  Starr  Jordan,  have  made  the  peace 


62  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 


movement  part  of  their  life-work,  and  have 
contributed  much  to  its  swift  advancement 

The  United  States  has  played  an  important 
part  in  the  two  Hague  Conferences.  At  the 
Second  Hague  Conference  she  it  was  who 
initiated  and  pressed  the  leading  measures 
either  discussed  or  adopted,  such  as  the 
permanent  court  of  nations,  arbitration  treaties, 
prize  courts  and  the  abolition  of  the  collecting 
of  private  debts  by  nations.  Her  record  has 
been  great  and  honourable  and  she  has  easily 
been  foremost  among  nations  in  urging  the 
reign  of  law. 

And  now  is  she  to  renounce  her  high  and 
unique  leadership,  sacrifice  her  chance  of 
greatness  and  let  England  or  France  take 
her  place  ?  There  was  no  sign  of  it  previous 
to  these  recent  years  ;  indeed,  three  years 
ago  it  looked  as  though  she  were  going  to 
crown  her  leadership  with  a  great  act  that 
would  sound  the  death  knell  of  war.  The 
then  President  of  the  United  States  sent  a 
thrill  of  exultation  through  the  heart  of  the 
nation  by  saying  that  he  believed  the  time 
had  come  when  nations  ought  to  agree  to 
settle  all  their  disputes,  of  whatever  character, 
by  arbitration. 

It  was  a  proud  moment  for  the  United 
States,  for  it  was  her  President  who  was  the 


Which  Leads  Nations  Into  New  Order  63 

first  ruler  of  a  great  nation  to  take  this 
prophetic  stand.  Mr.  Taft  followed  up  his 
epoch  making  utterance  with  a  still  greater 
step.  He  proposed  that  this  nation  offer 
Great  Britain  and  France  such  general  treaties 
of  arbitration  as  he  had  advocated.  Great 
Britain  and  France  not  only  signified  their 
willingness  to  accept  these  treaties,  but  went 
so  far  as  to  affix  their  signatures  to  them. 
And  then  our  nation  took  its  first  backward 
step  ;  for  the  first  time  in  history  renounced 
its  high  leadership.  The  United  States 
Senate  (let  us  acknowledge  by  closest  vote) 
refused  to  ratify  these  treaties  as  framed  fey 
the  President  and  the  Department  of  State, 
and  so  emasculated  them  as  to  make  them 
little  better  than  those  partial  treaties  all 
nations  have  been  making  for  years.  It  was 
the  great  national  renunciation.  The  nation 
missed  her  supreme  chance  of  greatness. 
She  will  never  be  truly  great  until  she  repents 
of  this  act  and  offers  to  sign  these  unlimited 
compacts  with  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany 
and  Japan. 

Meantime,  with  the  election  of  Woodrow 
Wilson  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United 
States  and  William  Jennings  Bryan  to  be 
Secretary  of  State,  the  United  States  has 
been  given  an  opportunity  to  redeem  itself 


64  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 

and  make  reparation  for  its  betrayal  of  the 
people.  For  we  believe  the  Senate  in  refus¬ 
ing  to  ratify  the  treaties  with  Great  Britain 
and  France  acted  contrary  to  the  desires  of 
the  people.  Hardly  had  they  rejected  the 
proposals  of  Mr.  Taft  when  President  Wilson 
and  Mr.  Bryan  came  forward  with  new  treaty 
proposals,  which,  while  not  so  absolute  and 
sweeping  in  their  terms,  yet  would,  if  adopted, 
probably  accomplish,  in  time,  the  same  end, 
namely,  the  substitution  of  judicial  procedure 
for  war  in  the  settlement  of  all  disputes 
between  our  country  and  other  nations. 

The  treaties,  as  proposed  by  Mr.  Bryan, 
provide  that  in  case  a  dispute  should  arise 
between  the  United  States  and  any  other  na¬ 
tion,  the  two  countries  shall  refrain  from 
going  to  war  until  an  International  Commis¬ 
sion  has  given  the  whole  subject  most  care¬ 
ful  consideration  and  investigation,  to  see  if 
the  dispute  cannot  be  settled  by  judicial  pro¬ 
cedure,  rather  than  by  war.  I  his  com¬ 
mittee  is  to  have  a  year  in  which  to  make 
its  report  and  neither  nation  is  bound  to 
abide  by  it. 

These  proposals  mark  such  an  advanced 
step  in  international  peace  that  they  deserve 
most  careful  reading.  They  are  as  follows  : 

“ARTICLE  I.  The  high  contracting  par- 


Which  Leads  Nations  Into  New  Order  65 

ties  agree  that  all  disputes  between  them,  of 
every  nature  whatsoever,  which  diplomacy 
shall  fail  to  adjust,  shall  be  submitted  for  in¬ 
vestigation  and  report  to  an  International 
Commission,  to  be  constituted  in  a  manner 
prescribed  in  next  succeeding  article;  and 
they  agree  not  to  declare  war  or  to  begin 
hostilities  during  such  investigation  or  re¬ 
port. 

“Article  II.  The  International  Com¬ 
mission  shall  be  composed  of  five  members, 
to  be  appointed  as  follows : 

“  One  member  shall  be  chosen  from  each 
country  by  the  Government  thereof,  one 
member  shall  be  chosen  by  each  Govern¬ 
ment  from  some  third  country,  the  fifth 
member  shall  be  chosen  by  common  agree¬ 
ment  between  the  two  Governments.  The 
expenses  of  the  commission  shall  be  paid  by 
the  two  Governments  in  equal  proportion. 

“  The  International  Commission  shall  be 
appointed  within  four  months  after  the  ex¬ 
change  of  the  ratification  of  this  treaty,  and 
vacancies  shall  be  filled  according  to  the 
manner  of  the  original  appointment. 

“  ARTICLE  III.  In  case  the  high  contract¬ 
ing  parties  shall  have  failed  to  adjust  a  dis¬ 
pute  by  diplomatic  methods,  they  shall  at 
once  refer  it  to  the  International  Commission 


66  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 


for  investigation  and  report.  The  Inter¬ 
national  Commission  may,  however,  act 
upon  its  own  initiative,  and  in  such  cases 
it  shall  notify  both  Governments  and  request 
their  cooperation  in  their  investigation. 

“  The  report  of  the  International  Commis¬ 
sion  shall  be  completed  within  one  year  after 
the  date  on  which  it  shall  declare  its  investi¬ 
gation  to  have  begun,  unless  the  high  con¬ 
tracting  parties  shall  extend  the  time  by 
mutual  agreement.  The  report  shall  be  pre¬ 
pared  in  triplicate :  one  copy  shall  be  pre¬ 
sented  to  each  Government  and  the  third 
retained  by  the  commission  for  its  files. 

“  The  high  contracting  parties  reserve  the 
right  to  act  independently  on  the  subject 
matter  of  the  dispute  after  the  report  of  the 
commission  shall  have  been  submitted. 

“  Article  IV.  Pending  the  investigation 
and  report  of  the  International  Commission, 
the  high  contracting  parties  agree  not  to  in¬ 
crease  their  military  or  naval  programmes, 
unless  danger  from  a  third  power  should 
compel  such  increase.  In  which  case,  the 
party  feeling  itself  menaced  shall  confiden¬ 
tially  communicate  the  fact  in  writing  to  the 
other  contracting  party,  whereupon  the  latter 
shall  also  be  released  from  its  obligation  to 
maintain  its  military  and  naval  status  quo. 


Which  Leads  Nations  Into  New  Order  67 

“  Article  V.  The  present  treaty  shall  be 
ratified  by  the  (here  names  of  the  officials 
who  have  the  power  to  sign  and  ratify  trea¬ 
ties  in  the  various  nations  will  be  entered), 
and  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent 
of  the  Senate  thereof,  and  the  ratifications 
shall  be  exchanged  as  soon  as  possible.  It 
shall  take  effect  immediately  after  the  ex¬ 
change  of  ratifications,  and  shall  continue 
in  force  for  a  period  of  five  years  ;  and  it 
shall  thereafter  remain  in  force  until  twelve 
months  after  one  of  the  high  contracting 
parties  has  given  notice  to  the  other  of  an 
intention  to  terminate  it.” 

The  proposals  have  already  met  with 
gratifying  response  from  the  different  na¬ 
tions.  President  Wilson  and  Secretary  Bryan 
have  confidence — on  what  grounds  we  know 
n°t — that  the  Senate  will  ratify  the  treaties 
as  they  may  be  signed.  They  are  not  as 
satisfactory  as  Mr.  Taft’s  original  proposi¬ 
tions,  which  bound  the  nation  to  arbitrate  its 
disputes  unless  an  international  commission 
declared  the  dispute  non-justiciable.  There 
remains  the  possibility  of  war.  But  there  re¬ 
mains  no  probability  of  war.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  all  students  of  world  politics  feel,  with 
Secretary  Bryan,  that  when  two  nations  found 


68  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 


themselves  on  the  verge  of  a  quarrel,  should 
they  refrain  for  one  year,  calmly  awaiting  a 
report  of  an  impartial  commission,  which 
would  certainly  report  the  dispute  capable 
of  arbitration,  their  passions  would  so  cool 
off  that  they  would  have  no  desire  to  fight 
each  other.  It  is  only  when  passions  are 
kindled  that  either  men  or  nations  desire 
war.  Let  them  wait  a  year,  refraining  from 
preparation  for  war,  maintaining  friendly  re¬ 
lations  while  the  commission  was  carrying 
on  its  investigations  and  risk  of  war  would 
pass  away. 

Again  our  country  has  stepped  to  the  front 
in  the  leadership  for  greatness.  Let  us  hope 
that  before  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Bryan  pass 
out  of  office,  the  United  States  will  have 
signed  these  treaties  with  every  nation  of  the 
globe. 


i 


VII 


THAT  NATION  IS  GREATEST  WHICH 
PRACTISES  HOSPITALITY 


A  NATION’S  growth  to  greatness  fol¬ 
lows,  to  a  marked  degree,  the  same 
laws  as  those  which  make  man  great. 
The  great  man  is  he  who  contributes  most  to 
the  world  of  truth,  or  invention,  or  art,  or  or¬ 
ganization,  or  blessing  of  any  sort.  The 
great  nation  is  that  which  contributes  most 
to  civilization.  The  great  man  is  he  who  is 
honourable,  charitable,  clean,  heroic,  of  lofty 
ideal.  The  great  nation  practises  justice  and 
stands  in  honour  before  the  world.  The 
great  man  is  he  who  rights  wrongs,  stamps 
out  injustices,  befriends  the  weak.  Surely, 
this  is  the  test  of  greatness  we  are  now 
applying  to  nations.  But  beyond  this  the 
great  man  is  always  the  hospitable  man. 
He  has  kept  his  mind  open  to  new  truth,  new 
ideas,  new  visions  dawning  on  the  world. 
He  has  kept  in  close  touch  with  humanity 
and  enriched  his  own  life  from  contact  with 
other  souls.  He  has  eschewed  provinciality 
and  generally  has  gone  far  beyond  national- 

69 


7o 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


ity  in  the  enrichment  of  his  life,  seeking  the 
gifts  of  art,  literature,  ideas,  ideals,  and  relig¬ 
ion  from  every  land.  It  is  this  that  makes 
large,  rich,  great  manhood.  It  is  this  that 
will  also  make  a  nation  great. 

This  truth  is  now  so  strikingly  in  process 
of  illustration  before  our  very  eyes  that  it 
hardly  needs  further  emphasis.  Sometimes 
it  looks  as  if  Japan’s  rapid  stride  towards 
greatness  began  on  the  day  she  offered  hos¬ 
pitality  to  outside  truth,  ideals,  and  whatever 
has  worth.  It  is  not  quite  fair,  however,  to 
say  that  her  greatness  began  at  that  moment, 
because  she  had  already  begun  to  evince 
greatness  when  she  decided  to  invite  the 
Western  culture  in.  But  the  real  greatness 
of  Japan  has  been  due  largely  to  her  hospi¬ 
tality,  which  has  been  more  marked  than  in 
almost  any  other  nation. 

As  a  consequence  her  greatness  has  de¬ 
veloped  faster.  She  has  thrown  her  doors 
wide  open,  and  has  freely  invited  in  all  the 
Christian  religion  has  to  give,  and  has  not 
only  adopted  it  widely,  but  where  she  has 
not  openly  done  so,  has  let  its  ideals  per¬ 
meate  all  her  institutions  and  contribute  what 
they  may  to  existing  religions.  She  has  in¬ 
vited  in  the  Western  education,  all  its  books 
and  methods,  and  then  framed  an  excellent 


Which  Practises  Hospitality  71 

system  of  her  own.  She  has  invited  in  all 
the  science  of  the  world  and  used  it  freely  in 
her  industrial  development  and  in  her  war¬ 
fare  against  disease.  She  imported  Western 
machinery  by  daily  boat  loads  and  began  to 
grow  rich.  She  sought  our  culture,  import¬ 
ing  our  books  by  the  thousands,  and  even 
sending  thousands  of  students  yearly  to  the 
colleges  of  America  and  Europe. 

She  freely  used  those  principles  of  constitu¬ 
tional  government  that  have  been  found  suc¬ 
cessful  in  other  nations  when  she  wished  to 
democratize  her  own  government.  It  has 
been  the  most  pronounced  instance  of  lav¬ 
ishly  exercised  hospitality  the  world  has  seen. 
It  has  been  perhaps  the  most  phenomenal  ex¬ 
hibition  of  speedily  acquired  greatness  the 
world  has  known.  And  now  China  is  open¬ 
ing  her  doors,  and  she  is  feeling  the  pulse  of 
life,  and  she  too  will  go  on  towards  great¬ 
ness,  if  she  can  practise  hospitality. 

We  are  sure  that  when  the  history  ol 
America’s  surprising  growth  into  real  great¬ 
ness  during  the  last  century  comes  to  be 
written,  it  will  be  said  :  “  Her  hospitality  has 
made  her  great.”  A  hundred  years  ago  she 
opened  her  doors  to  all  peoples ;  she  invited 
all  the  races  of  the  earth  to  come  and  be  her 
guests.  She  even  erected  a  great  statue  at 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


72 

her  gates  to  give  them  welcome  as  they  came. 
She  has  offered  them  citizenship  on  easiest 
terms  compatible  with  safety,  and  she  has 
freely  educated  them  in  the  schools. 

To-day  she  is  great  because  of  that  hospi¬ 
tality.  For  all  the  nations,  acting  on  her 
hospitality,  came  with  their  best.  England, 
Scotland  and  Ireland  sent  their  sturdiest  and 
brightest  to  us.  From  Scandinavia  came  the 
youngest  and  best.  Eight  millions  of  Ger¬ 
mans  have  come  with  their  genius  for 
thoroughness.  The  Italian  has  come  with 
his  strong  arms  to  dig  and  his  instinct  for 
song  and  colour.  While  from  all  those  lands 
south  and  east  of  Austria  have  come  a  great 
multitude  of  clean  limbed,  vigorous  young 
workers  who  are  making  the  wealth  of 
America  in  mines,  factories  and  shops. 

And  it  is  the  best  that  have  responded  to 
her  hospitality.  It  is  the  ambitious  man,  the 
young  man  with  dreams  and  witE  courage  to 
fulfill  them  who  leaves  Croatia,  crosses  Europe 
and  follows  the  broad  Atlantic  to  our  shores. 
We  have  become  great  from  those  whom 
their  fatherlands  would  gladly  have  kept  at 
home. 

It  is  the  greatest  mistake  in  the  world  to 
think  that  it  is  the  scum  of  the  earth  that 
comes  to  America.  It  is  the  strongest,  stur- 


Which  Practises  Hospitality  73 

diest,  most  healthful,  most  aspiring.  They 
have  come  and  they  have  helped  make 
America.  They  have  built  her  railroads, 
tunnelled  her  mountains,  mined  her  coal  and 
ore,  erected  her  great  cities,  tilled  her  illimit¬ 
able  soil ;  and  the  second  and  third  genera¬ 
tions  have  become  her  business  men  and 
artisans,  her  professional  men  and  teachers, 
holders  of  office,  and  members  of  legislatures. 
They  are  America’s  real  wealth.  It  is  they 
who  have  helped  make  her  great.  What  art 
and  music  she  has  yet  produced  has  been 
largely  brought  by  them.  And  when  one 
names  our  great  men,  how  many  of  them  are 
ours  not  by  birth  but  by  hospitality — such 
names  as  Carl  Schurz,  Theodore  Thomas, 
Leopold  Damrosch,  John  S.  Kennedy,  An¬ 
drew  Carnegie,  William  S.  Rainsford,  Frank 
Kneisel,  Robert  Collyer,  Anton  Seidl,  John 
Hall,  and  William  M.  Taylor. 

These  are  only  a  few.  How  much  poorer 
America  would  have  been  to-day  had  she 
closed  her  gates  after  1812  and  kept  them 
shut ;  how  much  more  provincial.  Her  hos¬ 
pitality  brought  these  millions,  all  with  their 
best  contributions,  and  America  has  compre¬ 
hended  these  varied  characteristics  of  all  na¬ 
tions  and  they  have  made  her  great.  And 
she  shall  be  greater  still. 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


74 

The  man  who  is  hospitable  to  truth  and 
ideals  from  whatever  source  is  the  man  who 
grows.  The  man  who  keeps  open  heart  and 
mind,  not  the  man  who  hedges  himself  about 
with  walls  and  fences,  is  the  man  who  grows 
great  in  culture,  resource,  and  strength. 
The  same  is  true  of  nations.  Here  is  the 
danger  of  tariffs.  Apart  from  any  political 
considerations,  granting  that  occasionally  it 
may  be  necessary  to  protect  an  infant  indus¬ 
try  for  a  while,  yet  fundamentally  the  whole 
system  of  barring  out  good  things  is  the  one 
policy  contradictory  to  greatness.  Particu¬ 
larly  is  this  true  when  a  nation  would  bar 
out  works  of  art,  books,  and  science.  It  is 
these  things  that  minister  to  greatness. 

Our  smallness  at  present  is  most  conspicu¬ 
ous  here.  We  have  not  produced  much 
great  art,  and  no  great  music.  While  we 
have  contributed  much  to  natural  science  and 
practical  invention,  yet  how  poor  we  should 
be  if  we  depended  on  America  alone  for  our 
great  books  1  It  is  from  Germany  that 
Kant,  Hegel,  Spinoza,  Fichte,  Schleier- 
macher,  Goethe,  Schiller,  Lessing,  Richter, 
Heine,  Eucken,  Harnack,  Haeckel — a  hun¬ 
dred  more — come  to  us.  It  is  from  England 
and  Scotland  that  Chaucer,  Shakespeare, 
Milton,  Burns,  Darwin,  Spencer,  Wordsworth, 


Which  Practises  Hospitality  75 

Coleridge,  Lamb,  Shelley,  Keats,  Tennyson, 
Browning,  Ruskin,  and  Matthew  Arnold 
come  to  us — from  them  that  we  must  invite 
the  great  philosophers  and  scientists  of  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  century.  How 
poverty  stricken  our  intellectual  and  artistic 
life  would  have  been  had  we  not  been  hospi¬ 
table  !  Let  us  never  dream  of  doing  any¬ 
thing  to  exclude  these  things.  Our  greatness 
lies  in  removing  every  restriction  and  freely 
and  even  beseechingly  inviting  all  art,  music, 
science,  books  to  our  shores. 

This  century  is  going  to  put  our  nation  to 
the  test  again  along  these  very  lines  of  hospi¬ 
tality.  Certain  new  ideals  of  human  relation¬ 
ships  and  of  the  social  order  and  of  what  we 
call  patriotism  are  rising,  if  as  yet  somewhat 
vaguely  and  incoherently,  in  every  land. 
Making  allowance  for  the  crude  forms  in 
which  these  ideals  may  at  times  shape  them¬ 
selves  politically  and  socially,  granting  that 
they  occasionally  emerge  in  exaggerated  and 
fantastic  form,  yet  they  are  the  ideals  that 
will  be  the  reality  of  the  next  century. 

Unless  all  the  signs  of  all  the  nations,  all 
literature,  all  social  movements,  must  be  ab¬ 
solutely  discredited,  these  things  are  sure  : 
that  the  next  century  is  going  to  see  the 
competitive  economic  order  largely  sup- 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


76 

planted  by  the  cooperative,  going  to  witness 
the  transfer  of  all  the  expenditures  of  nations 
from  guns  wherewith  to  kill  each  other  to  the 
rooting  out  of  disease,  poverty,  ignorance, 
and  the  establishment  of  industries,  homes, 
and  plenty  for  everybody  ;  going  to  witness 
— indeed,  it  is  already  seeing  it — the  enlarge¬ 
ment  of  patriotism  from  an  unreasoning  de¬ 
votion  to  one  country  to  a  cosmic  patriotism 
whose  chief  loyalty  is  to  humanity. 

In  substance,  these  are  the  three  ideals 
that  are  emerging  from  all  the  social  unrest, 
the  political  agitation,  the  literature  of  Eu¬ 
rope.  The  echoes  are  already  in  our  own 
land.  The  platforms  of  the  three  political 
parties  of  1912  showed  signs  of  it.  They 
are  appearing  in  our  literature.  Our  great 
labour  organizations  are  groping  towards 
them,  if  often  blindly.  They  are  finding 
more  and  more  emphasis  in  the  churches, 
even  with  somewhat  formidable  opposition 
from  those  saints  who  are  always  trying  to 
hold  back  the  sea.  They  are  as  inevitable 
in  some  form  or  other  as  democracy  was  in 
France,  England  and  America  a  hundred 
years  ago. 

That  nation  is  going  to  be  greatest  which, 
instead  of  fearing  these  ideals,  welcomes 
them  with  hospitality  and  leads  the  world  in 


Which  Practises  Hospitality  77 

their  rational  application  to  life.  The  United 
States  will  be  greatest  in  the  degree  that  she 
shows  hospitality  to  them  beyond  other 
nations.  Let  us  wish  for  her  that  she  should 
not  let  France  or  Germany  or  even  England 
take  her  crown  here.  The  cooperative  ideal 
in  industry  is  making  great  progress  in 
Germany  and  they  who  believe  in  it  are 
growing  rapidly  in  numbers  and  influence. 

The  feeling  that  militarism  as  the  basis  of 
the  political  order  has  had  its  day  and  that 
the  governments  must  stop  spending  all  their 
resources  on  armament,  and  must  put  it  on 
constructive  ventures,  productive  of  human 
welfare  and  happiness,  is  finding  a  rapidly 
growing  group  of  advocates  in  Great  Britain. 
The  insistence  on  a  larger  and  cosmic  pa¬ 
triotism  is  continually  finding  utterance  in 
the  writings  of  France.  These  ideals  are 
going  to  forge  ahead  very  rapidly.  The 
horror  and  absurdity  of  the  unspeakable 
Balkan  orgy  have  convinced  thousands  in 
Europe  that  wars  are  not  only  foolish  and 
sinful  but  futile. 

Great  changes  in  ideals  are  soon  to  sweep 
across  the  world.  These  three  are  going  to 
arise  as  the  old  ones  fall  away.  Our  country 
must  hurry  if  she  would  be  first.  She  has 
a  wonderful  opportunity  to  lead  here,  because 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


78 

she  has  so  much  democracy  on  which  to 
build,  and  these  ideals  are  nothing  but  the 
logical  flowering  of  democracy.  She  already 
has  the  materials  of  a  cosmic  patriotism, 
because  half  of  her  citizens  call  other  nations 
father  and  mother,  while  they  have  adopted 
this  country  as  their  own.  Here,  too,  people 
from  every  land  have  learned  to  be  friendly 
towards  each  other  and  to  see  that  attach¬ 
ments  are  not  based  on  nationality  but  upon 
humanity.  Let  our  nation  be  hospitable  to 
these  dawning  and  larger  conceptions  of  the 
social  economic  and  political  order,  and  she 
will  add  another  mark  of  greatness  to  her 


score 


VIII 


THAT  NATION  WILL  BE  GREATEST  IN  THE 
TWENTIETH  CENTURY  WHICH  FIRST 
LEARNS  STEWARDSHIP 

THE  test  of  national  greatness  in  the 
past  has  always  been  the  capacity 
to  make  all  other  nations  bring 
tribute.  That  has  been  the  greatest  nation 
which  could  take  the  most  from  other  nations, 
which  could  steal  the  most,  conquer  the  most, 
destroy  the  most  men  or  cities,  subdue  other 
nations  under  her  feet.  The  practically  uni¬ 
versal  praise  of  poets  and  historians  has  been 
bestowed  upon  the  great  empire  building 
nations,  and  regardless  of  what  use  they 
made  of  the  empire.  England  has  been 
great  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  because  she 
seized  India  and  other  lands.  All  over  Italy, 
since  Italy  stole  Tripoli,  the  press  has  been 
saying :  “  At  last  Italy  has  awakened  to  a 
consciousness  of  her  greatness.”  Practically 
all  history  has  been  written  from  this  point 
of  view — the  greatest  nation  has  been  that 
nation  which  has  stolen,  destroyed,  devasta- 

79 


80  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 

ted,  or,  at  least,  subdued  other  nations  and 
peoples.  Rome  was  greatest  of  them  all. 

Curiously  enough,  all  this  we  praise  in  na¬ 
tions  is  what  we  have  long  ago  ceased  prais¬ 
ing  in  men.  We  condemn  men  who  steal 
and  destroy,  and  call  them  mean  and  vile 
and  despicable,  not  great.  He  is  the  greatest 
man  who  gives  the  most,  not  gets  the  most ; 
who  saves  life,  not  destroys  it.  Of  course  it 
has  not  always  been  so.  There  was  a  time 
when  the  greatest  man  was  he  who  did  just 
exactly  what  we  now  think  great  in  nations  ; 
who  stole,  subdued,  and  killed  the  most. 

The  Caesars  and  Napoleons  and  William 
the  Conquerors  used  to  be  our  greatest 
heroes.  The  men  who  could  build  up  huge 
fortunes  in  our  own  America,  regardless  of 
any  method,  used  to  be  recorded  as  America’s 
greatest  men.  But  all  this  has  changed. 
The  great  men  of  to-day  are  not  the  Napo¬ 
leons  but  the  Pasteurs.  We  honour  the  men 
who  save  life, — not  those  who  destroy  it. 
The  great  man  is  not  he  who  gets  the  most, 
but  he  who  gives  the  most.  We  determine 
a  man’s  genius  even,  not  by  his  ability  to 
acquire  a  vast  fortune,  but  by  his  ability  to 
use  it  where  it  will  most  forward  human 
evolution.  The  great  man  to-day  is  he  who 
renders  most  service  to  humanity ;  who  con- 


Which  First  Learns  Stewardship  81 

siders  himself  steward  of  whatever  trusts  God 
may  have  given  him ;  who,  in  his  greatness, 
befriends  the  weak  and  helpless;  whose  heart 
is  set  on  duties  rather  than  on  rights. 

The  question  is  whether  this  is  not  to  be 
the  test  of  a  nation’s  greatness  in  the  twen¬ 
tieth  century.  Is  not  that  nation  to  be 
greatest  which  can  forget  its  self-interest 
occasionally  and  go  out ;  which  can  be  the 
friend  and  helper  of  the  weaker  nations ; 
which  can  demand  that  justice  be  done  in  the 
world  ;  which  can  have  the  sense  of  mission , 
of  being  sent  to  seek  not  its  own  only,  but  to 
bless  others ;  which  can  learn  that  it  is  giving 
which  makes  a  nation  great,  as  it  is  giving 
and  serving  which  makes  men  noble?  There 
are  already  signs  of  a  tendency  to  bring 
nations  up  to  the  same  test  as  that  which  we 
now  apply  to  men. 

There  was  a  condemnation  of  Italy’s  high¬ 
handed  action  in  Tripoli  in  the  press  of  Europe 
and  America  that  would  have  been  unknown 
twenty  years  ago.  There  is  a  wide-spread 
feeling,  seen  in  Europe  and  America,  that 
the  time  for  the  exploitation  of  weaker  nations 
by  powerful  ones  has  gone  by.  The  recogni¬ 
tion  of  the  right  of  any  big  nation  to  seize  any 
little  one  it  wanted  to  would  not  be  so  easily 
obtained  to-day  as  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago. 


82  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 


There  was  in  England  a  large  and  powerful 
group  which  protested  against  England  enter¬ 
ing  upon  the  Boer  War,  declaring  that  she 
was  sacrificing  her  honour  and  true  greatness. 
All  over  the  world  a  new  literature  is  being 
born,  with  this  as  its  key-note. 

But  how  is  it  with  our  own  country  ?  Is 
she  leading  in  this  regard  ?  Is  she  “  going 
out  ”  more  than  any  other  nation,  to  befriend 
and  bless — to  serve  and  develop  other  lands  ? 
Is  she  learning  to  put  aside  that  national 
greed  and  stealing,  which,  until  very  recently, 
even  our  churches  have  praised  and  blessed, 
and  even  sink  her  own  rights  for  the  sake  of 
lifting  other  nations  up  and  securing  welfare 
for  them  ?  Perhaps  this  is  to  be  the  ultimate 
test  of  national  greatness  in  the  twentieth 
century  as  it  is  already  the  final  test  of  human 
nobleness.  Let  us  be  glad  that  we  can  say, 
up  to  the  present  time,  that  the  United  States 
has  led  in  this  high  test  of  greatness. 

The  signs  of  this  are  the  things  of  which 
our  nation  should  be  proudest.  We  forgot 
our  greatness  ;  yielded  to  the  frenzy  of  the 
jingoes  and  yellow  journals  and  plunged  into 
an  absolutely  unnecessary  war  with  Spain. 
But  it  is  to  the  nation’s  lasting  credit  that 
she  has  treated  the  lands  accidentally  acquired, 
— Cuba,  Porto  Rico  and  the  Philippines — 


Which  First  Learns  Stewardship  83 

with  friendly,  helping  hands  ;  given  Cuba  to 
her  own  people ;  is  perfectly  willing  to  give 
the  Philippines  to  their  own  people ;  has  edu¬ 
cated  rather  than  exploited,  and  has  won 
friendship  rather  than  enmity.  No  nation,  a 
few  years  ago,  would  ever  have  thought  of 
doing  anything  other  than  seizing  these  lands 
and  holding  them  forever,  and  bleeding  them. 
If  the  United  States,  after  preparing  the  Fil¬ 
ipinos  for  self-government,  will  give  them 
back  their  islands,  and  will  promise  to  protect 
them  from  the  greed  of  any  other  nation,  she 
will  have  done  the  greatest  act  of  national 
greatness  history  has  known. 

Furthermore,  there  are  many  evidences 
that  this  nation  as  a  whole  has  no  desire  to 
seize  any  other  nation’s  land  but  is  conceiving 
for  herself  the  part  of  peacemaker  and  general 
helper  of  the  twenty  republics  south  of  her, 
which  she  has  already  drawn  into  a  Pan- 
American  union  for  their  good.  Is  it  not 
true  that  the  national  ideals  advanced  by 
President  Taft  at  the  dedication  of  the  palace 
presented  by  Mr.  Carnegie  to  the  Pan-Amer¬ 
ican  Union  for  its  home,  represent  the  grow¬ 
ing  convictions  of  the  American  people  ? 
The  President  said  :  “  It  goes  without  saying 
that  in  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States 
its  greatest  object  is  the  preservation  of  peace 


84  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 

among  the  American  Republics.”  A  year 
later,  at  the  Third  National  Peace  Congress 
at  Baltimore,  President  Taft  spoke  in  even 
stronger  terms.  He  said :  “  The  State 

Department  at  Washington  has  no  more 
important  or  absorbing  duty  than  to  lend  its 
good  offices  to  the  twenty  republics  of  this 
hemisphere  to  prevent  their  various  differences 
leading  into  war.” 

What  ruler  would  have  held  up  such  things 
as  ideals  to  his  nation  thirty  years  ago  ?  If 
they  really  represent  the  ideals  of  our  govern¬ 
ment,  we  are  on  the  way  to  greatness.  Presi¬ 
dent  Taft  followed  this  remark  with  the 
statement  that  in  his  own  administration  this 
country,  by  using  its  kindly  influence,  had 
gone  out  of  its  way  enough  to  prevent  four 
wars  among  the  republics.  He  also  uttered 

these  memorable  words :  “  There  is  not,  in 

\ 

the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  United 
States,  among  its  peoples,  any  desire  for 
territorial  aggrandizement,  and  its  people, 
as  a  whole,  will  not  permit  this  government, 
if  it  would,  to  take  any  steps  in  respect  to 
foreign  governments  except  those  which  will 
aid  those  foreign  governments  and  those 
foreign  people  in  maintaining  their  own 
government  and  in  maintaining  peace  within 
their  borders.  .  .  .  We  have  attained 


Which  First  Learns  Stewardship  85 

great  prosperity  and  great  power.  We  have 
become  a  powerful  member  of  the  community 
of  nations  in  which  we  live,  and  there  is, 
therefore,  thrown  upon  us  necessarily  a  care 
and  responsibility  for  the  peace  of  the  world 
in  our  neighbourhood,  and  a  burden  of  helping 
those  nations  that  cannot  help  themselves.” 

Think  of  it !  The  President  of  the  United 
States  declaring  to  the  world  that  this  nation 
does  not  intend  to  steal  any  one’s  land  and 
that  her  chief  duty  is  to  help  those  nations  that 
cannot  help  themselves  !  Who  ever  heard  of 
such  a  thing  of  a  nation  before  !  Of  a  man, 
yes — of  all  gentlemen.  It  is  what  makes 
men  great.  But  of  a  nation,  no.  Yet  we  be¬ 
lieve  that  the  accomplishment  of  President 
Taft’s  high  ideal  is  to  be  the  nation’s  future 
claim  for  greatness.  We  believe  that  he 
echoed  the  thought  of  the  people  and  we  are 
glad.  This  country  is  on  the  way  to  great¬ 
ness  as  thus  she  goes  out  to  her  sister  re¬ 
publics. 

But  let  us  remember  with  much  gratifica¬ 
tion  that  our  nation  has  gone  far  beyond  this 
hemisphere  and  rendered  one  service  as  far 
off  as  the  Orient  that  was  another  one  of 
these  steps  towards  true  greatness.  After  the 
Boxer  Rebellion  in  China  was  quelled,  the 
indemnity  owing  the  United  States  was  ap- 


86  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 


praised  at  about  $25,000,000.  When  about 
half  of  this  amount  had  been  paid,  the 
United  States  government  found  that  prac¬ 
tically  all  losses  had  been  covered  and  re¬ 
leased  China  from  paying  the  balance  of  the 
indemnity.  The  result  is  that  China,  after 
she  got  over  the  amazement  such  a  deed 
on  the  part  of  a  nation  caused,  sent  a  special 
envoy  of  high  rank  to  Washington  to  thank 
our  President  and  set  aside  the  sum  at  home 
to  send  several  hundred  Chinese  students  to 
America  every  year.  This  is  what  came 
from  “  going  out,”  rather  than  selfishly  in¬ 
sisting  on  our  whole  pound  of  flesh. 

It  is  but  one  instance  of  what  should  soon 
be  happening  continually.  Soon  the  United 
States  should  be  known  throughout  all  the 
world  as  a  nation  whose  sense  of  mission  is 
as  strong  as  that  which  dwelt  in  the  breast 
of  David  Livingstone,  whose  greatness  all 
the  world  has  recently  been  celebrating. 
She  should  everywhere  be  designated  as  the 
nation  whose  friendliness  was  her  highest 
attribute,  and  whose  chief  desire  was  the 
service  of  all  peoples.  Unconsciously  she 
has  already  blessed  many  peoples.  The 
South  American  republics  caught  their  demo¬ 
cratic  impulse  from  her  and  made  copious  use 
of  her  constitution  in  framing  their  own. 


Which  First  Learns  Stewardship  87 

Japan  has  studied  her  educational  institutions, 
her  commercial  organization,  her  industrial 
methods,  since  the  awakening  of  the  East  and 
sent  thousands  of  her  boys  to  America  to 
learn  of  our  best. 

China  is  doing  the  same  to-day.  For 
many  years  now,  our  missionaries  have  been 
moulding  the  ideas  as  well  as  the  ideals  of 
all  these  nations,  and  most  of  the  educational, 
philanthropic,  medical,  and  technical  methods 
now  so  rapidly  spreading  throughout  Eastern 
nations  were  introduced  by  missionaries  from 
America  with  their  broad  conception  of  the 
meaning  of  religion. 

But  now  the  time  has  come  when  volunta¬ 
rily ,  and  as  her  vocation  and  divine  calling, 
the  United  States  should  enter  upon  the  duty 
of  going  out,  should  assume  the  r61e  of 
servant  of  the  nations.  The  European  pow¬ 
ers  are  just  now  in  a  frenzy  of  alarm,  a  per¬ 
fect  nightmare  of  fears  and  jealousies  that 
bids  fair  to  plunge  all  Europe  into  a  cataclysm 
that  may  almost  wipe  out  its  civilization. 

Each  nation  is  beginning  to  squeeze  out 
the  very  life-blood  of  its  people  to  pile  up  vast 
armaments  on  sea  and  land.  As  we  write, 
Germany  is  asking  the  rich  to  sacrifice  their 
fortunes  for  an  army  on  a  war  footing.  France 
is  calling  upon  every  man  to  throw  up  his 


88  That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 

career  and  add  one  more  year  to  the  army. 
Great  Britain  is  piling  up  all  the  money  she 
can  draw  out  of  the  people  and  putting  it 
into  gunboats,  while  the  people  starve.  Ana- 
tole  France  says  it  means  the  end  of  culture 
in  France,  but  everything  must  now  go  into 
muskets  and  camps.  Germany’s  great  in¬ 
dustrial  development  must  receive  a  check. 
In  Paris  the  students  are  again  singing  the 
old  war  songs  around  the  statue  of  Alsace 
Lorraine.  It  is  all  fraught  with  imminent 
danger.  Nothing  can  stop  it  short  of  some 
great  machinery  in  which  all  the  nations  shall 
have  confidence,  such  as  a  permanent  court 
of  arbitral  justice  and  a  concurrent  agreement 
of  the  nations  to  use  it. 

The  United  States  should  at  once  make 
this  her  chief  mission— to  save  these  nations 
from  the  sins  which  they  would  escape,  but 
seemingly,  of  their  own  motion,  cannot.  She 
should  be  willing  for  a  while  to  turn  some  of 
her  self-directed  energy  to  establishing  this 
permanent  court  of  nations.  She  should  lift 
up  her  voice  without  ceasing — day  and  night 
demanding  this  permanent  court  and  preach- 
ing  the  substitution  of  judicial  methods  for 
war  in  the  settlement  of  all  international  dis¬ 
putes.  She  should  appoint  a  great  com¬ 
mittee  of  the  leading  peace  workers  and 


Which  First  Learns  Stewardship  89 

statesmen  of  the  nation  to  do  nothing  from 
to-day  until  the  next  Hague  Conference  but 
preach  this  thing.  The  Second  Hague  Con¬ 
ference,  largely  through  the  insistence  of  this 
government,  voted  in  favour  of  such  a  Court, 
but  many  difficulties  stood  in  the  way  of  its 
speedy  constitution. 

The  United  States,  in  the  face  of  the  im¬ 
perative  call  of  the  world,  ought  to  engage 
all  the  best  international  lawyers  of  the  world 
to  work  together  in  conference  and  be  ready 
to  attend  the  Third  Hague  Conference  with  a 
plan  for  a  permanent  court  which  will  be 
approved  by  the  nations.  This  nation  ought 
at  once,  for  the  sake  of  the  world,  to  offer 
every  nation  an  absolute,  unqualified  treaty, 
agreeing  to  settle  every  kind  of  dispute  by 
arbitration  that  individuals  now  settle  by 
judicial  methods.  It  might  cost  her  some¬ 
thing  ;  she  might  be  taking  some  risks,  al¬ 
though  she  takes  no  more  risk  than  does  any 
man  who  passes  self-defense  over  from  pistols 
to  courts.  But  all  true  greatness  is  willing 
to  suffer  some  inconvenience  for  the  larger 
good. 

And  should  the  United  States  lead  in  this 
thing,  the  blessing  of  the  nations  would  be 
inevitable.  All  possibilities  of  wars  with  one 
great  nation  would  be  removed.  The  nations 


That  Nation  Will  Be  Greatest 


90 

of  Europe  and  South  America  would  soon  be¬ 
gin  to  ask  :  “  If  this  is  possible  between  our¬ 
selves  and  the  United  States,  why  is  it  not 
possible  among  ourselves  ?  ”  Surely,  such 
treaties  would  follow.  In  time,  as  treaties 
multiplied,  the  reasons  for  armaments  would 
disappear,  and  those  fears  of  invasions  and 
outside  attacks  would  slowly  fade  away. 
Has  not  our  nation  the  capacity  to  rise  to 
that  point  of  greatness  where  every  good 
man  easily  and  naturally  stands,  and  make 
this  offer  to  the  nations  for  the  sake  of  their 
salvation  ? 

Shall  she  hesitate  because  of  some  little 
risk  ?  '  Why  should  not  then  every  man  who 
forgets  himself  to  some  extent  in  serving  his 
neighbours  or  his  country  stop  ?  Why 
should  not  a  nation  be  as  ready  to  make 
some  sacrifices  for  the  sake  of  the  world  as 
a  man  is  for  the  sake  of  the  nation  f  Here 
will  be  real  national  greatness  when  we  reach 
out  towards  this. 

And  finally,  when  the  nations  of  the  world, 
looking  to  America,  see  that  she  is  doing 
some  new  thing  among  the  nations  :  moving 
along  new  ways,  following  some  new  im¬ 
pulse,  concerning  herself  not  with  self-pro¬ 
tection  merely,  putting  stealing  and  oppres¬ 
sion  and  exploitations  of  the  weak  as  far  be- 


Which  First  Learns  Stewardship  91 

hind  her  as  good  men  long  ago  put  such 
things ;  forgetting  herself  sometimes  and 
concerning  herself  chiefly  with  going  out  to 
do  good ;  when  the  nations  become  con¬ 
fident,  as  soon  they  will,  that  the  United 
States  means  nothing  but  good-will,  justice, 
and  friendliness  to  all  peoples,  then  will  she 
have  accomplished  more  to  bring  universal 
peace  than  all  active  steps  which  she  might 
take.  For  not  only  will  she  be  immune  from 
all  danger,  not  only  will  she  be  able  to  offer 
mediation  at  any  time  of  strain  between  other 
nations,  not  only  will  other  nations  seek  her 
special  friendship,  but  in  the  process  of  time 
they  will  see  that  her  way  is  the  true  way ,  the 
safe  way  and  the  right  way}  and  they  too  will 
begin  to  wonder  if  national  greatness  does 
not  after  all  consist  in  those  things  which  make 
men  great :  good-will,  helpfulness,  service, 
leadership  into  higher  ways,  going  out. 


4 


IX 

THAT  NATION  IS  GREATEST  WHICH  FIRST 
PRACTISES  REAL  DEMOCRACY 

URELY  the  United  States  is  great  if 
democracy  makes  a  nation  great  ? 
No,  for  as  yet  she  has  not  realized 
democracy.  She  has  partially  achieved  it. 
To  some  degree  her  form  of  government  is 
based  upon  it.  The  ideal  is  ever  before  her 
best  citizens.  She  wears  the  name  em¬ 
blazoned  upon  her  bosom.  But  real  de¬ 
mocracy  has  not  yet  been  tried.  If  our  na¬ 
tion  can  rise  to  it  she  shall  be  greatest  of 
them  all,  and  the  light-bringer  to  the  world. 
For  all  nations  long  for  it,  wait  for  it,  and  it 
is  the  ultimate  political  order  of  the  world. 

But  as  yet  we  are  far  off.  In  democracy 
the  people  rule,  or  at  least  choose  those  to 
whom  they  shall  delegate  that  office.  But 
in  how  many  cities  or  states  do  the  people 
actually  rule,  or  say  who  shall  rule  ?  As  this 
book  was  being  written  one  man  was  calmly 
sitting  in  a  restaurant  in  New  York  with  a 
few  henchmen  about  him  picking  out  who 
should  be  the  Democratic  candidate  for 


S 


92 


Which  First  Practises  Real  Democracy  93 

Mayor  of  one  of  the  biggest  and  greatest 
cities  in  the  world.  There  are  probably 
350,000  Democrats  in  that  city.  Not  twenty 
of  them  have  had  any  say  who  should  be 
nominated  on  the  Democratic  ticket.  This 
same  man  largely  controls  the  Legislature  in 
the  capital  of  his  great  state,  and  the  legis¬ 
lators,  instead  of  passing  the  laws  the  people 
want,  pass  those  this  great  boss  wants,  even 
when  these  laws  rob  the  people.  This  boss 
rule  exists  throughout  the  nation.  It  is  in 
smallest  villages,  it  is  in  all  towns,  it  reaches 
its  height  of  power  in  large  cities.  While  it 
lasts  there  is  no  democracy.  When  the 
United  States  shall  have  rid  herself  of  it, 
she  will  have  taken  one  step  towards  great¬ 
ness. 

Two  of  the  most  incompatible  things  in 
the  world  are  democracy  and  special  privi¬ 
lege.  Yet  special  privilege  is  continually  be¬ 
ing  bought  from  our  state  legislatures  and 
from  the  National  Congress  itself.  Great 
corporations,  railroads,  industries,  even  so¬ 
cieties  are  forever  buying  legislation — such 
legislation  often  robbing  the  people  of  mil¬ 
lions  of  dollars.  In  how,  many  cities  of  the 
United  'States  have  not  trolley  companies, 
gas  companies,  all  kinds  of  companies 
bought  franchises  that  drained  the  people  for 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


94 

generations  ?  And  who  can  believe  that 
some  tariff  legislation,  passed  to  protect  some 
one  special  industry,  has  not  sometimes  been 
bought?  Until  this  whole  practise  of  buy¬ 
ing  and  granting  special  legislation  can  be 
stopped,  democracy  has  not  come.  And  the 
test  of  national  greatness  will  be  democracy 
in  the  years  before  us. 

Real  democracy  implies  economic  and  so¬ 
cial  justice,  as  well  as  political.  Economic 
justice  implies  the  opportunity  to  work,  just 
wages  for  work  done,  a  fair  share  of  the 
earnings  produced,  the  certainty  of  food, 
shelter,  and  medical  attendance  to  the  end. 
We  believe  that  hardly  any  one,  with  any 
love  of  humanity  in  him,  any  sense  of  the 
direction  in  which  the  world  is  moving,  any 
prophetic  instinct,  will  deny  that  this  is  a  fair 
statement  of  true  democracy.  We  are  not 
here  concerned  with  Socialism,  Communism, 
Progressivism,  or  any  other  theory,  move¬ 
ment  or  party. 

We  are  not  at  all  sure  that  the  future  polit¬ 
ical  order  will  be  any  of  which  men  now 
dream.  It  will  combine  some  features  of 
them  all.  It  will  be  real  democracy,  what¬ 
ever  form  it  will  assume,  and  it  will  provide 
justice  for  all.  It  will  be  more  cooperative 
and  less  competitive.  It  will  deal  more  with 


Which  First  Practises  Real  Democracy  95 

men  as  beings,  and  less  with  them  as  commod¬ 
ities,  wage  earners,  economic  units.  It  will 
consider  their  welfare  as  well  as  their  capac¬ 
ity  to  earn.  It  will  be  fatherly  in  its  attitude 
towards  toilers,  as  well  as  businesslike.  It 
will  see  that  some  provision  is  made  for  sick¬ 
ness,  accident  and  old  age,  either  by  insur¬ 
ance,  pensions  or  shares  in  the  industry 
where  one  has  worked.  The  government 
will  exist  for  the  welfare  of  all  the  people. 
Then  democracy  will  have  come. 

To  revert  to  a  thought  brought  out  in  a 
previous  chapter,  true  democracy  will  have  a 
care  of  all  its  people,  from  the  child  to  the 
tottering  old  man,  and  see,  so  far  as  in  it  lies, 
that  each  one  gets  opportunity,  justice  and 
happiness.  It  will  see  that  all  its  children 
get  proper  education,  that  they  are  kept  from 
too  early  work,  and  from  work  that  dwarfs 
their  development  or  sows  seeds  of  ill  health 
in  their  bodies.  It  will  pay  more  attention 
to  training  its  young  men  both  how  to  get  a 
living  and  how  to  live.  It  will  devote  itself 
to  the  health  of  the  whole  people.  Nothing 
is  more  significant  of  the  coming  democracy 
of  America  than  the  growing  movement  in 
the  Government  itself  to  protect  children,  care 
for  the  national  health,  stop  the  manufacture 
and  sale  of  poisonous  foods  and  medicines. 


That  Nation  is  Greatest 


96 

It  should  be  extended  in  many  directions.  It 
is  all  in  the  line  of  democracy.  It  will  make 
us  great. 

No  nation  can  be  truly  great  nor  have  real 
democracy  which  has  any  vestige  of  race 
prejudice  left  in  it,  or  which  practises  injus¬ 
tice  to  any  class,  or  allows  it  to  be  practised 
within  its  borders.  There  can  be  no  colour 
line,  race  line,  language  line,  in  democracy. 
Here  is  where  democracy  lingers  in  our  own 
land.  So  long  as  we  disfranchise  a  man  be¬ 
cause  he  is  black,  and  not  because  he  is  in¬ 
capable  of  intelligent  participation  in  govern¬ 
ment,  we  are  practising  rank  injustice,  and 
democracy  cannot  survive  injustice  of  any 
sort.  So  long  as  we  socially  ostracize  a  man 
because  he  happens  to  belong  to  a  certain 
race,  so  long  are  we  still  unjust,  that  is,  un¬ 
democratic.  So  long  as  we  discriminate  be¬ 
tween  classes  on  false  and  arbitrary  distinc¬ 
tions,  rather  than  on  a  basis  of  character,  so 
long  is  democracy  far  from  us.  National 
greatness  will  come  when  every  man  in  the 
nation  receives  just  treatment,  regardless  of 
any  outward  mark. 

There  can  never  be  a  real  democracy  where 
idealism  is  absent  from  a  people.  Democ¬ 
racy  cannot  exist  where  material  wealth  is  the 
only  wealth  of  a  nation.  Indeed,  the  pursuit 


Which  First  Practises  Real  Democracy  97 

of  wealth  alone  develops  just  that  spirit  of 
self  which  makes  democracy  impossible. 
Democracy  is  based  upon  mutual  coopera¬ 
tion,  not  “  each  for  himself/'  but  “  each  for 
all.”  It  is  based  on  the  desire  to  make  one’s 
nation  resplendent  in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 
It  is  based ^on  an  idealism  that  puts  the  ac¬ 
complishment  of  moral  greatness  above  that 
of  vast  fortunes,  high  buildings,  long  rail¬ 
roads,  sumptuous  palaces,  multi-millionaires. 
It  is  based,  as  we  have  seen,  on  justice.  Let 
not  our  material  wealth  swamp  that  idealism 
on  which  democracy  rests.  Let  us  rise  on 
our  wealth,  more  equally  distributed  as  the 
years  go  by,  into  the  world  of  the  spirit  and 
as  a  sun-crowned  democracy  be  great. 

Finally,  democracy  and  militarism  have  no 
part  with  each  other,  and  cannot  exist  to¬ 
gether.  Democracy  rests  upon  the  wider 
and  wider  diffusion  of  power  among  the  peo¬ 
ple.  Every  additional  soldier  and  every  bat¬ 
tle-ship  means  centralization  of  power  in  the 
hands  of,  not  the  government  only,  but  of  the 
man  at  the  head  of  the  government.  It  is 
this  militarism  that  makes  democracy  im¬ 
possible  in  Russia.  It  is  because  democracy 
is  impossible  in  Germany  so  long  as  the  go^ 
ernment  has  the  vast  army  at  its  back  tha^- 
the  social  democrats,  the  working  men  o* 


98  That  Nation  is  Greatest 

Germany  are  opposing  militarism.  It  is  be¬ 
cause  the  working  men  of  France  see  a  blow 
at  democracy  in  the  adding  of  an  extra  year 
to  the  military  service  that  they  carried  their 
mile  long  petition  against  this  act  to  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies.  It  is  this  feeling  that 
the  conscription  and  compulsory  service  in 
the  army  which  Lord  Roberts  and  the  Tories 
are  so  frantically  urging  upon  England  is  a 
covert  blow  at  democracy  that  it  is  being  so 
violently  opposed.  It  behooves  every  Ameri¬ 
can  to  watch  very  carefully  every  attempt  to 
militarize  America,  and  see  if  it  is  not  fear  of 
democracy  that  lies  behind  the  movement 
rather  than  fear  of  France  and  Germany. 

There  is  a  lurking  suspicion  in  the  minds 
of  those  who  are  watching  the  struggle  for 
democracy  in  America  that  here,  too,  these 
attempts  to  make  militias  part  of  the  Regular 
Army,  increase  the  Army  and  Navy,  to  train 
college  boys  to  kill  with  precision,  may  be 
more  based  on  fear  of  the  working  men  of 
America  by  some  capitalists  and  on  the  de¬ 
sire  of  some  manufacturers  of  armament, 
guns,  nickel,  and  powder  to  amass  vast  for¬ 
tunes  and  upon  the  desire  to  hold  democracy 
in  check,  more  than  upon  patriotism  or  fear  of 
any  outside  enemies.  However  this  may  be 
— and  we  believe  it  is  true — every  increase 


Which  First  Practises  Real  Democracy  99 

in  the  Army  and  Navy  of  America  means 
less  power  of  the  people,  more  power  of  the 
Government ;  less  diffusion  of  government, 
more  centralization  of  it ;  less  democracy, 
more  autocracy.  But  it  is  democracy  that 
makes  a  nation  great. 


X 


SOME  INDICATIONS  THAT  THE  UNITED 
STATES  IS  A  GREAT  NATION  1 

THE  impression  exists  among  many 
people  that  the  United  States  be¬ 
came  a  world  power  when  she  con¬ 
quered  the  Spaniards  and  sank  a  few  worth¬ 
less  boats  in  Manila  Harbour.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  should  the  United  States  to-day 
go  into  Mexico  and  demolish  the  Mexicans 
and  seize  the  land  to  be  her  own,  one  would 

1  In  1910  the  author  delivered  an  address  “The  United 
States  and  the  Nations.”  In  1913,  Edwin  D.  Mead,  Secre¬ 
tary  of  the  World’s  Peace  Foundation,  Boston,  Mass.,  delivered 
a  remarkable  address  in  Chicago :  “  The  United  States  as  a 
World  Power.”  As  was  inevitable,  it  covered  much  of  the 
same  ground  as  the  author’s  address,  and  used  some  of  the 
same  illustrations.  It  has  since  been  published  in  pamphlet 
form.  In  19 12  two  striking  books  on  Missions  were  published, 
both  of  which  reveal  on  every  page  the  wonderful  part  our  na¬ 
tion  has  played  in  building  Eastern  civilizations ;  how  she  has 
been  a  world  power  since  the  first  missionary  landed  in  the 
East.  These  books  are  “  Some  By-Products  of  Missions,”  by 
Isaac  Taylor  Headland,  Ph.  D.  (Eaton  &  Mains),  and  “  Hu¬ 
man  Progress  Through  Missions,”  by  James  L.  Barton,  D.  D. 
(Fleming  H.  Revell).  This  chapter  is  a  review  of  these  two 
books  and  Mr.  Mead’s  address.  The  facts  presented  strik¬ 
ingly  corroborate  the  contentions  of  the  author  in  this  book  as 
to  what  makes  a  nation  great. 


100 


Is  a  Great  Nation  101 

hear  vociferous  talk  in  all  directions  about 
the  United  States  again  having  manifested 
herself  as  a  world  power.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  United  States  has  been  one  of  the 
greatest  world  powers  continuously,  since  her 
birth  in  1776.  There  has  never  been  a  year 
in  all  her  history  when  she  has  not  been  ex¬ 
ercising  a  most  potent  influence  on  the  na¬ 
tions  of  the  world,  and  the  thing  we  most 
need  to  have  impressed  upon  us  in  our  day 
is  that  her  influence  through  these  years  of 
peace  has  been  infinitely  greater  than  has 
ever  come  from  any  conquests  she  may  have 
made  by  force.  The  influence  which  she 
exerted,  for  instance,  in  the  Spanish  War,  is 
not  to  be  named  in  the  same  breath  with  the 
influence  which  she  has  been  continually  ex¬ 
erting  for  a  hundred  years. 

This  has  all  been  brought  out  so  splendidly 
in  a  pamphlet  by  Edwin  D.  Mead,  Secretary 
of  the  World’s  Peace  Foundation,  of  Boston, 
that  we  cannot  forbear  giving  in  our  last 
chapter  a  summary  of  his  remarkable  words. 
They  are  words  which  every  man  in  the 
United  States  should  read  and  ponder.  Mr. 
Mead  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  there 
are  two  kinds  of  power  in  the  world  :  moral 
power  and  physical  power,  or,  in  other  words, 
the  power  of  ideas  and  of  materialism.  In- 


102  Indications  that  the  United  States 

fluence  which  is  exerted  through  moral  power 
and  through  ideas  infinitely  transcends  any 
influence  which  any  nation  exerts  by  force. 
He  then  shows  how  true  this  has  been  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  In  the  first  part 
of  his  pamphlet  he  dwells  upon  a  theme  on 
which  perhaps  we  have  not  sufficiently  dwelt 
in  the  United  States,  namely,  the  influence 
of  our  country  upon  the  motherland  herself. 
For  Great  Britain  and  all  her  colonies  have 
developed  a  good  many  of  their  political 
institutions  along  lines  in  which  the  United 
States  has  been  pioneers.  Mr.  Mead  might 
also  have  referred  to  the  fact  that  that  great 
editor,  William  T.  Stead,  when  he  wrote  his 
book  on  the  organization  of  the  world,  called 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  institutions  which 
should  lie  at  the  basis  of  this  organization 
would  be  patterned  upon  those  in  the  United 
States  of  America.  If  we  should  have  a 
world  court  it  would  be  patterned  upon  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  Were 
we  to  have  a  world  parliament,  its  organiza¬ 
tion  would  be  largely  based  upon  the  Con¬ 
gress  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Mead  dwelt 
upon  the  fact  that  many  of  the  colonies  of 
Great  Britain,  such  colonies  as  Australia, 
New  Zealand  and  others,  had  almost  literally 
copied  the  political  institutions  of  our  coun- 


Is  a  Great  Nation  103 

try  and  based  their  constitutions  upon  them. 
Thus,  the  son  has  influenced  the  mother,  and 
thoughtful  Englishmen  gratefully  acknowl¬ 
edge  this,  and  regret  not  that  a  hundred 
years  ago  we  severed  ourselves  from  direct 
relationships  with  them. 

But  Mr.  Mead  then  proceeds  to  point  out 
how  this  influence  is  making  itself  felt  much 
more  fully  in  many  other  parts  of  the  world. 
How  many  realize  that  many  of  the  leaders 
in  the  recent  Balkan  movement  for  national 
liberty  and  for  freedom  to  develop  along 
European  rather  than  Asiatic  lines  were  edu¬ 
cated  by  American  institutions?  The  best 
Bulgarians  have  received  their  training  at 
Robert  College,  which  was  founded  by  Cy¬ 
rus  Hamlin,  an  American,  and  which  has 
been  run  by  American  men  and  American 
money  ever  since.  These  young  Bulgarian 
statesmen,  even  the  Prime  Minister,  were 
educated  at  this  little  college  at  Constanti¬ 
nople.  To  quote  a  line  from  Mr.  Mead : 
“So  well  was  that  known  that  when  the 
great  ships  sailed  away  after  the  treaty  of 
San  Stefano,  carrying  the  young  men  up 
through  the  Black  Sea  to  their  home  to  set 
up  Bulgaria  in  self-government — as  the  great 
ships,  I  say,  passed  the  little  American  col¬ 
lege  on  the  hill,  every  one  dipped  its  flag, 


104  Indications  that  the  United  States 

and  every  one  with  its  great  guns  thundered 
its  salute  in  reverent  recognition  of  the  Amer¬ 
ican  cradle  of  Bulgarian  self-government. 
When  we  realize  what  has  come  from  that, 
when  we  realize  that  out  of  Robert  College 
there  have  been  going,  and  are  still  going, 
young  statesmen  to  make  over  Bulgaria,  to 
make  over  Servia,  to  leaven  Macedonia  and 
to  affect  the  whole  Near  East — we  realize, 
then,  something  of  the  mighty  influence  of 
the  United  States  as  a  world  power  through 
American  ideas,  something  at  this  moment 
of  concern  to  the  Balkan  States  worth  taking 
note  of.” 

And  at  the  same  time  the  leaders  of  the 
Young  Turks,  those  who  have  been  standing 
for  constitutional  government  in  Turkey  and 
those  who  would  have  saved  their  nation 
from  the  awful  catastrophe  which  has  de¬ 
scended  upon  her,  and  who  would  have  had 
her  keep  her  promises  to  the  European  na¬ 
tions  and  would  have  had  her  show  tolerance 
in  all  her  relations,  were  young  men  who 
have  been  educated  at  this  same  institution 
and  owe  their  new-found  vision  of  democracy 
to  America,  and  to  America  alone.  Thus  the 
United  States  through  her  schools  and  col¬ 
leges  is  influencing  all  these  Balkan  Powers, 
and  even  Turkey  herself,  and  whatever  fine 


Is  a  Great  Nation  105 

consummation  may  ultimately  come  out  of 
this  great  struggle  will  be  in  some  part  due 
to  the  influence  of  the  United  states ;  an  in¬ 
fluence  greater  than  any  war  or  conquest  she 
might  ever  have  made. 

In  a  most  eloquent  passage  Mr.  Mead 
calls  attention  to  the  influence  of  the  United 
States  in  Japan.  It  was  the  United  States 
which  peacefully  opened  the  doors  of  Japan 
to  the  new  ideas,  and  which  led  her  out  of 
her  former  hermit  condition,  out  of  her 
isolation,  into  friendship  and  cooperation 
with  the  powers  of  the  Western  world. 
Ever  since  then  the  United  States  has  exer¬ 
cised  greater  influence  there  than  has  any 
other  nation.  Not  only  has  she  sent  her 
missionaries  to  Japan  and  established  schools 
and  colleges  where  the  finest  Japanese  youth 
have  been  trained,  but  after  they  have  been 
graduated  from  these  local  institutions  they 
have  almost  invariably  come  to  America  and 
here  studied  our  political  and  religious  and 
commercial  life,  and  gone  back  to  become 
the  leaders  of  their  own  country.  Indeed, 
Japan  has  been  so  Americanized  that  often 
an  American  finds  himself  quite  at  home 
when  he  lands  at  Tokyo,  so  exactly  are  the 
Japanese  institutions  modelled  on  his  own. 
One  university  alone,  Doshisha,  founded  by 


lo6  Indications  that  the  United  States 

Americans,  conducted  for  many  years  by  a 
Japanese  who  was  educated  in  America  and 
by  Americans,  has  turned  out  hundreds  of 
Japanese  boys  and  girls  to  be  leaders  of  their 
nation  ever  since  it  was  founded  fifty  years 
ago.  One  fact  to  which  Mr.  Mead  calls 
attention  is  that  even  the  Japanese  who  came 
to  this  country  to  meet  the  Russians  at  the 
time  of  the  settlement  of  the  war  had  been 
educated  in  the  United  States.  And  Mr. 
Mead  then  says:  “When  the  president  of 
the  University  of  Kyoto,  who  was  also  the 
president  of  the  Japanese  Academy,  was  in  this 
country  three  or  four  years  ago  he  came  to 
Boston,  and  I  remember  a  speech  of  his  at 
a  dinner  there.  The  tribute  paid  by  this 
eminent  Japanese  scholar  to  the  United 
States  and  her  influence  upon  Japan  would 
have  been  something  to  give  you  pride  in 
that  kind  of  exercise  of  world  power  of  which 
a  country  may  indeed  be  proud.  And  only 
two  months  ago  we  had  in  Boston  Dr. 
Naruse,  the  head  of  the  Japanese  Women’s 
College,  in  which  a  thousand  women  are 
studying.  Dr.  Naruse,  one  who  has  himself 
felt  the  influences  of  American  education, 
paid  the  highest  tribute  to  American  influ¬ 
ences  in  the  uplift  of  Japanese  woman  and  in 
lapanese  education  altogether.  Why,  the 


Is  a  Great  Nation 


107 

basis  of  the  agricultural  college  in  Japan  was 
outlined  by  the  first  president  of  our  agricul¬ 
tural  college  in  Massachusetts.” 

In  the  same  way  Mr.  Mead  showed  how 
die  United  States  had  been  a  world  power 
in  making  the  modern  China.  It  is  abso¬ 
lutely  fair  to  say  that  no  military  power  of 
Europe,  not  even  Germany  or  Great  Britain, 
has  had  anything  like  the  shaping  influence 
upon  the  new  China  that  the  United  States 
has  had,  exercised  absolutely  in  peaceful 
ways  and  needing  no  power  or  force  of  any 
kind  behind  it.  Mr.  Mead  calls  attention  to 
the  fact  that  China  contains  one-fourth  of  the 
population  of  the  world,  that  she  is  going  to 
advance  faster  in  the  next  fifty  years  than 
Japan  has  advanced  in  the  last  fifty,  and  that 
that  advance  will  mean  vastly  more  for  the 
world.  In  this  advance,  he  says,  the  part 
taken  by  the  United  States  is  most  manifest. 
All  our  relationships  with  China  so  far  have 
been  on  a  most  friendly  basis.  After  the 
Boxer  revolution  the  indemnity  which  was 
assessed  by  the  United  States  was  twenty-five 
million  dollars,  but  it  was  found  that  after  all 
bills  had  been  paid,  a  half  of  that  amount 
still  remained  unused,  and  we  never  exacted 
it  from  China.  There  was  no  return  of 
indemnity  to  China  by  any  other  nation,  and 


lo8  Indications  that  the  United  States 

the  impression  made  upon  China  was  sc 
great  that  she  devoted  that  money  to  be  used 
in  sending  five  or  six  hundred  students  every 
year  to  America  to  study  our  institutions. 
These  students  are  now  going  back  to  be 
leaders  in  China.  All  the  new  important 
positions  in  the  government  have  been  filled 
by  these  students.  Talk  about  the  influence 
of  the  United  States  !  What  influence  of  any 
nation  in  the  world  backed  by  all  the  force  at 
its  command  equals  this  influence  which  the 
United  States  is  exercising  upon  China  by  a 
simple  act  of  Christian  good-will  and  friend¬ 
ship  ?  As  Mr.  Mead  says  :  “  More  than  one- 
half  of  the  revolutionary  Cabinet  of  Sun  Yat 
Sen  were  men  who  had  been  educated  in 
foreign  universities,  largely  in  American  uni¬ 
versities.  A  large  proportion  of  the  members 
of  the  present  government  of  Yuan  Shi-kai 
are  men  fitted  in  universities  outside  of  China, 
largely  American  universities.  The  Chinese 
revolution  has  been  a  revolution  of  scholars, 
and  those  scholars  got  their  inspiration  and 
their  self-governing  ideas  in  high  measure 
here  in  the  universities  of  the  United  States. 
I  was  speaking  at  the  University  of  Michigan 
in  Ann  Arbor,  and  I  dined  there  with  their 
Cosmopolitan  Club.  I  learned  to  my  surprise 
that  there  are  in  the  University  of  Michigan 


Is  a  Great  Nation 


icx, 

sixty  Chinese  students — more  in  the  Univer¬ 
sity  of  Michigan  than  in  any  other  single 
university — and  several  of  those  men  are  sup¬ 
ported  out  of  the  indemnity  fund.  We  have 
some  of  them  in  Massachusetts,  at  Harvard 
and  elsewhere,  and  they  are  scattered  all  over 
the  country.  I  wish  that  you  knew  these  men 
as  well  as  it  has  become  my  privilege  and 
happiness  to  know  them.  Twice  recently  we 
have  had  a  dozen  or  fifteen  of  them  in  our 
home ;  and  could  you  talk  with  these  young 
men,  could  you  mark  their  beautiful  spirit, 
their  gentle  manners,  their  high-minded¬ 
ness,  their  thirst  for  knowledge,  their  public 
spirit,  their  ambition  to  serve  China  and 
carry  over  there  all  that  is  best  in  the 
United  States,  you  would  realize  how  im¬ 
mense  the  influence  in  the  United  States  as 
a  world  power  has  been  and  may  be  in  the 
making  over  of  China.  I  say  I  know  of 
nothing  in  human  history  more  impressive, 
more  momentous,  than  the  fact  that,  at  the 
same  time,  through  the  force  in  such  high 
degree  of  American  ideas,  the  Turkish  tyranny 
should  be  thrust  out  of  Europe  and  a  federal 
republic  be  set  up  in  China  by  men  who  pro¬ 
fess  as  their  highest  ambition  the  establish¬ 
ment  in  China  of  a  federal  republic  like  the 
United  States  of  America.  My  friends,  be- 


l  io  Indications  that  the  United  States 

side  this  the  talk  of  the  United  States 
becoming  a  world  power  because  it  sank 
half  a  dozen  second  rate  Spanish  gunboats  a 
dozen  years  ago — why,  my  friends,  that  is  so 
trivial,  is  such  levity,  that  it  makes  serious 
and  sober  Americans  blush  with  shame.” 

Mr.  Mead  might  also  have  added  that  the 
whole  new  educational  system  of  China  is 
being  based  upon  the  educational  system 
of  the  United  States.  She  has  sent  many 
specialists  here  to  study  at  first  hand  our 
methods,  and  she  is  even  now  bringing 
specialists  from  America  to  help  her  establish 
her  school  system.  Her  whole  method  of 
political  preferment  is  being  changed  and 
is  being  based  now  upon  capacity  and  upon 
merit  and  the  new  constitution  of  the  govern¬ 
ment,  as  was  the  case  with  Japan,  has  been 
largely  influenced  by  the  political  principles 
of  our  own  land.  (A  Columbia  University 
professor,  Dr.  Goodnow,  has  been  called  to 
China  to  advise  in  some  changes  in  the  Con¬ 
stitution.) 

One  frequent^  hears  talk  to  the  effect 
that  while  Germany  is  making  ready  by 
building  her  great  navies,  and  Great  Britain 
is  all  ready,  to  become  world  powers  in  their 
influence  upon  South  America,  that  the 
United  States,  unless  she  equals  them  in 


Is  a  Great  Nation 


ill 


strength  and  force,  cannot  stand  with  them 
as  a  great  influence  upon  these  southern 
nations.  People  who  think  in  this  way  should 
read  Mr.  Mead’s  statements  regarding  our 
influence  in  South  America.  Indeed,  we  are 
practically  the  only  nation  who  has  ever  had 
any  influence  in  South  America,  or  who  has 
any  to-day.  Neither  Germany  nor  Great 
Britain  bear  any  comparison  with  our  nation 
as  a  world  power  in  South  America.  There 
has  not  been  a  political  constitution  formed 
by  any  nation  to  the  south  of  us  that  has  not 
borne  the  impress  of  our  own.  Indeed,  as 
Mr.  Mead  intimates,  it  may  fairly  be  said 
that  the  impulse  to  democracy,  the  first  reach¬ 
ing  out  for  a  republican  form  of  government 
came  after  the  United  States  had  been  made 
a  republic.  The  South  American  states 
became  republics  because  the  United  States 
had  made  the  system  of  government  a  suc¬ 
cess.  They  looked  to  us  and  followed  in  our 
path.  “  Within  a  generation  a  whole  con¬ 
tinent  made  over  through  our  exercise  of 
influence  upon  the  institutions  and  constitu¬ 
tions  of  that  continent !  I  think  that  is  worth 
recalling  when  men  rise  up  and  tell  us  that 
we  suddenly  began  to  be  a  world  power  a 
dozen  years  ago  when  we  sank  half  a  dozen 
Second  rate  Spanish  gunboats.” 


;i2  Indications  that  the  United  States 

There  were  two  books  published  in  1912 
one,  “  Human  Progress  Through  Missions,” 
by  Dr.  James  L.  Barton,  of  the  American 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  of  Boston  ;  another. 
“  Some  By-Products  of  Missions/’  by  Dr. 
Isaac  T.  Headland,  where  again  one  sees 
what  a  wonderful  world  power  the  United 
States  has  been  during  the  last  hundred 
years.  In  these  books  one  sees  how  the 
colleges  and  churches  and  technical  schools 
and  hospitals  which  the  Americans  have 
founded  in  India,  China,  Japan,  and  Syria, 
and  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  for  that  matter, 
have  silently  and  quietly  been  transforming 
the  whole  civilization  of  these  lands.  They 
have  been  centres  of  light.  From  them  have 
flowed  streams  of  influence  which  have  grad¬ 
ually  and  imperceptibly  changed  all  sorts  of 
existing  customs,  and  even  modes  of  thought. 
Altruism  in  India  owes  its  origin  to  American 
and  British  institutions  ;  it  was  an  unknown 
thing  until  the  Western  world  came  with  its 
gospel  of  service.  The  hospitals  and  medical 
schools  and  the  colleges  and  the  technical 
schools  in  all  of  these  countries  have  been 
largely  based  upon  the  schools  which  the 
missionaries  have  organized  and  conducted. 
The  new  spirit  of  equality  and  the  breaking 
down  of  caste  which  is  rapidly  going  on  in 


Is  a  Great  Nation 


n3 

these  lands  had  its  origin  largely  because  of 
contact  with  American  homes  which  have 
been  established  by  the  missionaries  through¬ 
out  all  these  lands,  and  there  is  no  doubt 
whatever  that  this  whole  spirit  of  democracy 
which  is  manifesting  itself  throughout  the 
East  can  be  traced  almost  directly  back  to 
our  own  land.  And  it  is  in  these  lines,  not 
by  military  conquest,  that  the  United  States 
will  always  exercise  the  highest  and  greatest 
influence  upon  the  other  nations  of  the  world. 
The  greatest  power  is  always  exercised 
through  kindly  helpfulness,  rather  than 
through  conquest. 

If  we  knew  of  any  one  who  was  sceptical 
as  to  whether  the  United  States  could  be  a 
world  power  without  a  great  navy,  we  would 
give  him  these  two  books.  The  facts  are  so 
given  here  that  they  are  not  only  indispu¬ 
table,  but  absolutely  convincing.  It  is  rather 
remarkable  that  two  books  covering  practi¬ 
cally  the  same  ground  should  have  come  out 
so  closely  together.  It  only  shows  that  two 
minds  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  East¬ 
ern  world  have  come  to  the  same  conclu¬ 
sions.  This  all  carries  weight,  and  perhaps 
it  is  a  good  thing  that  the  books  appeared 
together.  Although  they  cover  the  same 
ground  and  show  that  practically  everything 


H4  Indications  that  the  United  States 

modern  and  worth  while  in  the  great  Eastern 
nations  is  a  by-product  of  Christian  missions, 
yet  each  writer  emphasizes  things  that  partic¬ 
ularly  struck  him  in  his  studies,  and  thus 
each  book  finely  complements  the  other. 
The  two  books  differ  a  little,  too,  in  their  ap¬ 
proach  to  the  subject.  Dr.  Barton  deals  in 
more  general  terms  with  the  permeation  of 
Eastern  civilizations  with  Christian  ideals. 
Dr.  Headland  gives  scores  of  illustrations 
and  concrete  instances  of  the  transformation 
wrought  in  the  communities  where  he  has 
lived,  by  the  mere  presence  of  the  Gospel, 
carried  by  American  missionaries.  Dr. 
Headland  also  fortifies  his  claims  that  the 
East  cannot  come  to  greatness  without  the 
Gospel,  by  appealing  to  history.  He  shows 
that  the  nations  of  to-day,  which  have  the 
political  power  of  the  world,  the  trade,  the 
science,  the  great  industries,  the  inventions, 
the  universities,  are  the  nations  where  the 
Bible  has  been  an  open  book  and  the  Gospel 
freely  preached.  History  is  simply  repeat¬ 
ing  itself  in  the  Orient.  Both  books  show 
how  practically  the  whole  market  for  West¬ 
ern  commodities  has  followed  our  mission¬ 
aries.  It  is  much  truer  to  say  that  “  Trade 
follows  the  mission  ”  than  “  Trade  follows 
the  flag.”  Thus  attention  is  called  to  the 


Is  a  Great  Nation  1 1 5 

fact  that  the  first  Singer  sewing  machine  to 
enter  China  was  carried  by  an  American 
missionary.  The  Chinese  saw  it  and  wanted 
it.  The  same  is  true  of  agricultural  imple¬ 
ments  and  industrial  machinery.  The  simple 
fact  is  that  those  Eastern  nations  which  have 
any  science,  any  industry,  any  commerce  or 
any  healing,  got  them  from  America,  and 
they  were  not  in  India,  China,  or  Japan  until 
we  went  there.  They  are  common  every¬ 
where  in  those  countries  now. 

Here  are  some  of  the  great  by-products  of 
missions,  some  facts  of  human  progress 
through  missions,  dwelt  upon  by  these 
books  :  There  was  no  healing  in  the  Eastern 
nations  until  the  Gospel  came.  Hospitals 
were  unheard  of  and  the  suffering  was  fear¬ 
ful.  The  so-called  physicians  made  it  worse. 
If  a  man  got  a  fish  bone  in  his  throat  incan¬ 
tations  were  used.  These  books  give  most 
pitiable  and  amusing  incidents  of  attempts  at 
surgery.  But  the  Christian  doctor  came  with 
the  missions,  and  generally  from  America. 
He  healed  many.  But  the  by-product  is  the 
great  thing.  China  and  Japan  began  estab¬ 
lishing  medical  schools  with  missionaries  at 
their  head.  Now  medical  schools  and  hospi¬ 
tals  are  being  built  all  over  the  Eastern  na¬ 
tions,  modelled  upon  American  institutions. 


n6  Indications  that  the  United  States 

The  same  has  been  true  of  the  educational 
system  of  the  East.  The  whole  university, 
college,  and  school  system  of  the  Eastern 
nations  is  largely  a  result  of  the  schools  our 
missionaries  established,  and,  as  we  saw  in 
the  case  of  China,  these  governments  have 
generally  called  upon  our  missionaries  to  be 
organizers  and  presidents  and  teachers,  until 
a  native  force  could  be  trained.  All  over  the 
East  fine  technical  schools  are  being  estab¬ 
lished.  They  mean  a  new  civilization  soon 
to  follow.  But  technical  schools  were  never 
heard  of  until  our  missionaries  came.  Both 
of  these  books  show  how  democracy  has 
been  a  by-product  of  missions.  The  founda¬ 
tion-stone  on  which  all  democracy  rests  is  the 
worth  and  potential  capacity  of  man.  There 
is  little  sense  of  this  in  non-Christian  lands. 
It  lies  inherent  in  every  word  of  Jesus  Christ. 
You  cannot  even  drop  a  New  Testament  into 
China  or  India  without  starting  a  ferment. 
The  Gospel  always  precedes  a  revolution. 
The  republic  of  China  is  a  by-product  of  the 
Gospel  carried  by  American  missionaries, 
who  have  put  the  book  into  everybody’s 
hands.  Again,  Eastern  religions  are  not  big 
enough  for  republican  forms  of  government. 
They  cannot  meet  the  new  national  require¬ 
ments.  As  a  result,  republicanism,  created 


Is  a  Great  Nation 


117 


by  the  ferment  of  the  Gospel  in  men’s  minds, 
is  now  reacting  in  favour  of  Christianity,  a 
religion  big  enough  for  democracy.  Christi¬ 
anity  alone  provides  adequate  motive  and 
power  for  modern  life. 

Both  of  these  books  are  explicit  in  their 
story  of  the  change  in  the  home  life  of  the 
East,  caused  simply  by  each  town  and  city 
seeing  a  Christian  home.  The  home  has 
been  copied.  Says  Dr.  Barton :  “  The  ex¬ 
ternal  conditions  of  the  Eastern  home  have 
met  with  marked  change.  It  is  impossible 
that  the  same  relations  shall  continue  to  exist 
between  the  educated  and  intelligent  wife  and 
her  husband  that  formerly  prevailed  between 
the  husband  and  his  ignorant  and  untutored 
wife.  Rapidly  the  wife’s  position  is  rising 
from  that  of  a  servant  or  a  toy  to  that  of  a 
companion  or  associate,  possessing  a  common 
interest  with  her  husband,  and  capable  of 
contributing  to  the  intellectual,  moral,  and 
social  equipment  of  the  home.  .  .  .  Sim¬ 

ultaneously  there  has  come  an  endeavour  to 
make  more  beautiful,  wholesome  and  sanitary 
the  externals  of  the  home  itself.” 

Dr.  Headland  shows  the  influence  of  our 
missions  upon  the  sanitary  conditions  of  the 
East  in  this  striking  paragraph :  “  Every  few 
years  there  breaks  out  in  these  filthy  Oriental 


1 18  Indications  that  the  United  States 

cities  a  plague  which  strikes  terror  to  the 
hearts,  not  only  of  the  people  among  whom 
it  starts,  but  in  the  hearts  of  those  also  at  the 
remotest  ends  of  the  earth.  Cholera,  bubonic 
and  pneumonic  plague,  dengue,  berberi,  and 
others.  Do  we  ever  ask  ourselves  why  all 
these  plagues  take  their  rise  in  Asia  ?  And 
do  we  try  to  answer  that  why  ?  One  word 
tells  the  tale  :  it  is  dirt.  Nay,  a  better  word 
is  filth  ;  for  dirt  does  not  express  the  filthiness 
of  Asiatic  dirt.  It  cannot  be  expressed  in 
the  English  language;  for  the  English  lan¬ 
guage,  since  it  has  been  a  language,  has 
never  lived  long  among  such  Tsang.  That 
is  the  word  that  expresses  it — Tsang.  There 
is  but  one  remedy  for  this  dirt,  and  that 
remedy  is  the  Gospel.  Wherever  the  Gos¬ 
pel  has  gone,  cleanliness  has  gone,  and  up  to 
the  present  the  world  has  never  produced  a 
clean  city  where  the  influences  of  the  Gospel 
have  not  gone.  If  I  did  not  believe  in  for¬ 
eign  missions  for  any  religious  reasons,  I 
would  believe  in  them  and  support  them  for 
the  sanitary  influence  they  have  had  upon  the 
world.  A  member  of  a  great  bathtub  manu¬ 
facturing  firm  told  me  at  the  Duquesne  Club 
in  Pittsburgh  recently  that  since  the  mission¬ 
aries  have  gone  to  China,  they  are  shipping 
thousands  of  bathtubs  to  that  great  empire.” 


Is  a  Great  Nation 


119 


So  these  books  go  on,  convincingly  reveal¬ 
ing  the  by-products  of  our  missions,  the  hu¬ 
man  progress,  in  civics,  art,  morals,  manner, 
social  life,  humaneness,  ideals — in  every  de¬ 
partment  of  life,  in  every  relation.  Espe¬ 
cially,  as  comprehending  them  all,  above  the 
direct  results  of  the  Gospel  in  converting  hu¬ 
man  hearts  to  the  serviceful  life,  a  new  spirit 
of  life  is  coming  over  all  nations,  namely,  the 
altruistic,  serviceful  spirit,  absolutely  un¬ 
known  before  the  Gospel  came.  Says  Dr. 
Barton  :  “  When  a  missionary  in  Africa  sug¬ 
gested  to  some  natives  that  a  much  used 
public  trail  should  be  constructed,  they  re¬ 
plied,  ‘  Never  since  the  Zambesi  ran  into  the 
sea  was  such  a  thing  dreamed  of  as  that  we 
should  make  a  road  for  other  people  to  walk 
on.’  That  is  the  idea  that  has  held  Africa 
and  Asia  for  centuries  in  the  grip  of  selfish 
and  narrow-minded  individualism.”  Care 
for  the  weak,  the  sick,  the  crippled,  the  poor, 
was  unknown.  The  idea  of  a  rich,  strong, 
educated  man  giving  his  life  to  elevate  the 
poor,  the  weak  and  the  ignorant  had  no  force 
in  the  East.  But  now  one  will  find  it  every¬ 
where,  especially  in  Japan.  Through  our, 
missions,  our  schools,  our  hospitals,  our 
books,  our  ideals,  our  statesmen,  our  inven¬ 
tions,  our  political  institutions  copied,  we 


120  Indications  that  the  United  States 

have  been  perhaps  the  greatest  world  power 
since  Palestine,  Rome  and  Greece.  Not  by 
might,  but  by  our  service,  have  we  conquered 
the  nations. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


2 


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classes  and  for  general  reading.  .  It  contains  the  findings 
of  the.  Men  and  Religion  Surveys  in  seventy  principal  cities, 
of  whi<^h  the  author  had  charge.  Mr.  Stelzle  also  served  as 
the  dean  of  the  Social  Service  throughout  the  Movement. 
Out  of  a  wide  and  practical  experience  in  City  Work  the 
author  discusses  a  program  for  the  Church,  especially  with 
regard  to  the  “down-town”  situation.  The  book  contains 
many  original  charts  and  diagrams. 

CHARLES  S.  MACFARLAND 

Spiritual  Culture  and  Social  Service 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00. 

A  stirring  call  to  service.  Dr.  Macfarland,  as  pastor  of 
Congregational  churches  in  large  industrial  centres,  has 
had  first  hand  experience  in  some  of  the  most  pressing  prob¬ 
lems  now  confronting  the  church.  As  secretary  of  the  Social 
Service  Commission  of  the  Council  of  Churches  of  Christ 
in  America,  he  is  now  engaged  in  solving  the  problem  in  a 
larger  way.  He  has  a  .message  to  deliver  and  he  presents  it 
with  a  force  and  conviction  that  cannot  fail'  to  deeply  im¬ 
press  and  influence  the  reader. 

ARTHUR  V.  BABBS ,  A.B. 

The  Law  of  the  Tithe 

As  Set  Forth  in  the  Old  Testament.  i2mo,  cloth, 
net  $1.50. 

“A  book  of  very  genuine  scholarship — a  complete  history 
of  the  universality  of  the  tithe — the  ablest  and  perhaps  the 
most  interesting  explanation  of  this  ancient  custom  that  has 
appeared.” — <N.  Y.  Christian  Advocate. 


HOME  MISSIONS 


LEMUEL  C.  BARNES,  D.D. 

Elemental  Forces  in  Home  Missions 

l2tno,  cloth,  net  75c. 

By  the  author  of  that  popular  missionary  text-book,  “Two 
Thousand  Years  of  Missions  Before  Carey/’  Some  of  the 
most  important  issues  connected  with  the  work  of  Christian¬ 
izing  America  are  presented  with  a  .  breadth,  a  clearness, 
a  force  and  a  conviction  that  will  give  the  reader  a  new 
vision  of  the  Home  Mission  opportunity  and  a  new  sense  of 
his  responsibility. 

JAMES  F.  LOVE ,  D  D. 

Ass.  Cor  Sec  Horn  Mission  Board  Southern  Baptist  Convention 

The  Mission  of  Our  Nation 

T2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00. 

“Doctor  Dove  shows  himself  at  once  a  historian  and.  a 
prophet  as  he  opens  the  book  of  the  past  and  points  out  its 
suggestion  for  the  future.  The  reader  is  irresistibly  carried 
forward  to  the  conclusions  of  the  author.  Interesting,  illumr 
inating  and  inspiring.” — Baptist  Teacher. 

MARY  CLARK  BARNES 

Early  Stories  and  Songs  for  New  Students 
of  English 

Illustrated,  i6mo,  cloth,  net  60c. ;  paper,  net  35c. 

Dr.  Edward  A.  Steiner  says:  “Not  only  practical  but  it 
affords  easy  transition  to  the  higher  things.  The  Bible  is  a 
wonderful  primer,  simple,  yet  wonderfully  profound.  I  am 
glad  that  it  is  the  basis  of  your  system  of  teaching  English 
to  foreigners.” 


HOME  MISSIONS— TEXT  BOOKS 

,  1  ■■■■!  ■  ■'  1  i„n., 

BRUCE  KINNEY ,  D.D. 

Mormonism :  The  Islam  of  America 

Home  Mission  Study  Course.  Illustrated,  i2mo, 
cloth,  net  50c.;  paper,  net  30c. 

Dr.  Kinney  treats  the  subject  in  a  judicious  way,  avoid¬ 
ing  denunciation  or  undue  criticism.  The  facts  of  Mormon 
history,  doctrine  and  life  are .  woven  into  a  readable  story 
that  is  sure  to  hold  the  attention. 

JOHN  R.  HENRY 

Some  Immigrant  Neighbors 

The  Hchne  Mission  Junior  Text  Book.  Illustrated, 
I2mo,  cloth,  net  40c.;  paper,  net  25c. 

The  author  is  the  pastor  of  “The  Church  of  All  Nations” 
in  New  York  City.  He  writes  of  many  nationalities  from  his 
own  experience.  Through  his  sympathetic  portrayal  the  child 
student  will  be  drawn  toward  a  neighborly  feeling  for  his 
little  brothers  of  foreign  speech. 


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JX1952.L98 

What  makes  a  nation  great, 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


